Real Madrid are chasing their first win at Borussia Dortmund at the seventh attempt... but Peter Bosz's side have been rampant i
There are very few places on Planet Earth where Real Madrid have never won a football match.
There are very few places on Planet Earth where Real Madrid have never won a football match.
The world's most recognised and European football's most successful club has beaten teams and won titles in Morocco, Japan, and Uruguay.
In the last four years, they have won Champions League Finals in Cardiff, Lisbon and Milan. Yet they have never won in Dortmund.
If Germany is generally a happy hunting ground for Cristiano Ronaldo and co., Dortmund is decidedly the opposite. Real have played in front of Borussia's Yellow Wall on six occasions, and never have they managed to silence it.
On Tuesday night, they will try for a seventh time. With Dortmund in blistering form and Real struggling to find their rhythm, it will be no easy task.
"We have never lost at home to them, but that alone won't help us tomorrow" said Dortmund's Mario Gotze. "But we know we are strong at home. We will be very, very confident against Real."
Dortmund have every reason to be confident.
Two points clear at the top of the Bundesliga, they have made a brilliant start to the season, looking more and more dangerous with every passing week.
Their 6-1 demolition of Borussia Moenchengladbach at the weekend was the latest peak. After just six Bundesliga games, Peter Bosz's side have scored 19 goals and conceded just one.
Gone are the ghosts of last season, when the relationship between Thomas Tuchel and the board soured the atmosphere within the club.
Gone, too, is the bitter aftertaste of Ousmane Dembele's strike and subsequent move to Barcelona. What remains is a team whose mood is as good as their form.
Dembele has gone, but new signings such as Maximilian Philipp and Andriy Yarmolenko are lighting up the wings, while the familiar faces are also firing.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, rather than sulking over his failure to force a move away, has banged in eight goals. Julian Weigl, meanwhile, has made a triumphant return from injury in the last few weeks.
Weigl has been linked with Real Madrid in the build-up to Tuesday's game, and will perhaps be hoping to charm Zinedine Zidane with a particularly fine performance.
For the whole team, this is a huge chance to reignite their Champions League campaign. Dortmund's 3-1 defeat to Tottenham two weeks ago was the one black spot in their flawless season, exposing their defensive weakness and seriously damaging their hopes of progressing from the group stage.
A victory against Real tonight would reverse that problem, and with the likes of Marcelo, Karim Benzema and Mateo Kovacic all injured, the conditions could hardly be more favourable.
"Even if Real have a few injuries, that doesn't make them any worse," warned Bosz this week. "They have world class players who will be in top form tomorrow."
Bosz also insisted that his side were capable of pulling out a similar performance to the one against Gladbach. Should Real stumble, that level of attacking verve could be lethal.
For the Dortmund coach, this is also an opportunity to show that Spanish dominance in the Champions League is not an irrefutable law of football. Real may have won the competition in three of the last four years, but Bosz sees no guarantee that they will do so again.
"We know that the Spanish teams have been very strong in recent years, particularly Real Madrid," he said.
"But that can change this year. Both Bayern and we are strong representatives of the Bundesliga."