Mario Götze is expecting an attack-minded opponent and "a tough game". Lucien Favre also declared his respect for the Belgian champions: "They recently got a 1-1 draw and a 4-0 win against Monaco. That says it all." Club Bruges need a result in Dortmund on Wednesday (21:00 CET) to keep their last 16 hopes alive.

"Bruges will do everything in their power to win the game," said Mario Götze, adding: "It'll be a tough game." Lucien Favre declared: "We'll need to produce a very, very good performance. We remember the away fixture." BVB struggled in Belgium and only claimed a 1-0 victory thanks to Christian Pulisic's last-gasp winner.

Over two months have elapsed since that first meeting between the teams on 18 September. "The first fixture was still too early in the season. You don't know where you are at that stage. Since then we've developed very well and won matches," said Götze as he reflected on the results since then (10 wins and two draws from 13 games). "We still have a lot of work to do, but we're making progress," said the coach of the current performance level, and warned: "We always want to go forward, but we need to find the right balance between defence and offense."

Götze, who has started three of the past five games in a "false nine" role, represents an important link between defence and attack. "I'm not the kind of player to wait for long balls," he said. The 26-year-old covers a lot of ground and never shies away from his defensive duties. "For me, it's important to play my part to ensure that we perform well and win. If I get tired after 60 minutes and Paco comes on and gets the goal, then that's no bad thing..."

At the press conference on Tuesday it appeared as though those roles would remain the same. "He needs time before he can play 90 minutes. It takes time," said Favre of the centre-forward, who had not played a full match for two years before moving to BVB – and now can't stop scoring from the bench...
Boris Rupert

BVB-TV: The press conference with Mario Götze and Lucien Favre