The curtain will rise on Borussia Dortmund's 18th Champions League campaign on Tuesday evening. Paris St. Germain will take part in the competition for the 16th time. The two clubs have previously met four times. The record (1-2-1) is completely even.

BVB facts

  • Borussia Dortmund are taking part in the UEFA Champions League for the 18th time since the competition was renamed.
  • BVB have reached the next round on 12 of the 17 occasions they have participated in the group phase.
  • For the first time, the Black & Yellows are in a group with opponents whose nations occupy places one (England/Newcastle), four (Italy/Milan) and five (France/Paris) in the UEFA Five-Year Ranking. Nominally, the group is therefore even stronger than the one from the 2012/13 season, which included Manchester City (England, first place), Real Madrid (Spain/2) and Ajax (Netherlands/8).
  • BVB have won nine and lost six of their previous 20 meetings with opponents from France. There have been draws on five occasions.
  • Borussia Dortmund have faced Paris St. Germain twice. Both games in the group stages of the 2010/11 UEFA Europa League ended in stalemates. There was a 1-1 draw in Dortmund (penalty scored by Nuri Sahin), while it ended 0-0 in Paris. In the 2019/20 UEFA Champions League round of 16 first leg, BVB won 2-1 thanks to two goals from Erling Haaland. Neymar scored the goal that levelled the scoring. The return leg in Paris – the first "ghost game" in Borussia Dortmund's history following the outbreak of the pandemic – ended in a 2-0 victory for PSG (goals from Neymar and Juan Bernat).
  • The 4-1 victory in Seville on the fourth matchday last season was one of only eight away victories in the past 29 European away games. There have also been six draws and 15 losses.
  • With 22 goals, Marco Reus is Borussia's top scorer in this competition ahead of Robert Lewandowski (17), Erling Haaland (15), Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (15) and Jan Koller (12).
  • Marco Reus also leads the way in terms of Champions League appearances (59), followed by Lukasz Piszczek (54) and Mats Hummels (53), who could draw level with the Pole on Tuesday. Lars Ricken and Stefan Reuter played 59 times for BVB in Europe's elite competition.

PSG facts

  • This will be Paris St. Germain's 16th involvement in the Champions League group phase. By taking part, PSG are equalling the French record held by Olympique Lyon. The club have been involved every season since 2012/13 and have always reached the knockout phase.
  • The 2020 finalists were eliminated in the last 16 for the second successive campaign last term and have now been knocked out in the first knockout round in five of the past seven seasons.
  • For PSG, it will be the third consecutive European match against a German opponent having faced Bayern Munich at home (1-0 defeat) and away (2-0 loss) in the round of 16 last season.
  • PSG were unbeaten in their first nine home games against German clubs (eight victories and one draw), but have lost two of the last three – both 1-0 against Bayern Munich.
  • France's champions have tasted defeat in five of their last 19 home games in the UEFA Champions League.