Next Tuesday, 24th of February 2015, a somewhat rejuvenated Borussia Dortmund will travel to Turin to measure forces with the all-powerful Juventus for the first-leg of the Last 16 stage of the UEFA Champions League.

This season has been completely atypical for the former European champions of Borussia Dortmund since, instead of battling with Bayern Munich for the Bundesliga title, they are struggling to escape the relegation places at the bottom of the table. With just seven wins from 22 matches, Dortmund are currently at the 12th place of the table with just three points above Freiburg, who are the first team below the relegation line.

Last Friday, Dortmund snatched a fantastic 3-2 win on a very complicated match against the former German powerhouses of Stuttgart. Jürgen Kloop’s boys put up another interesting and at the same time intense performance and benefited from an inspired display by Marco Reus, who netted in Dortmund’s last goal

In contrast with their shameful campaign on Bundesliga, their Champions League’s stint is being fairly impressive so far. Dortmund ended up at the top of their group with the same points of Arsenal and with just one defeat and four goals conceded on the six matches they took part in.

The upcoming clash against Juventus will work as a sort of revival of the 1997 Champions League final that Dortmund won by 3-1. In fact, the German side record against the Vecchia Signora is fairly positive with two wins in three official clashes. For next Tuesday’s match, Jürgen Kloop will not be able to rely on the services of Kevin Grosskreutz and he is not yet certain if Durm, Hummels, Immobile and Kehl will recover from their respective injuries in time for the match.

As for Juventus, the current Serie A champions are once again dominating the football scenario in their own country. The Vecchia Signora is at the top of the table with nine points more than AS Roma, who have been sinking deep in their recent matches. After a not-much-impressive draw at Cesena, Juventus returned to wins last Friday night against Atalanta and benefited from AS Roma’s draw at Verona to increase their lead at the top of the table.

For the upcoming Champions League clash against Dortmund, Juve’s manager, Massimiliano Allegri, will probably still not be able to rely on the services of Asamoah, Barzagli and Matri, who are currently sidelined due to injury,

Despite Dortmund’s recent improvements, it will certainly be hard for them to leave Turin with a win, but if they do things right, they might snatch a positive result next Tuesday.

Juventus

Stats: W-3 L-2 D-0

Recent Form - WDWDW

Borussia Dortmund

Stats: W-3 L-1 D-1

Recent Form - WWWLL

Possible Line-ups

Juventus  (4-3-1-2) - Buffon - Stephan Lichtsteiner - Bonucci - Padoin - Chiellini - Pirlo - Paul Pogba - Claudio Marchisio - Vidal - Carlos Tevez - Llorente

Borussia Dortmund (4-2-3-1) - Weidenfeller - Piszczek - Subotic - Sokratis - Schmelzer - Sahin - Gundogan - Mkhitaryan - Kagawa - Reus - Aubameyang

Prediction

Juventus 1 Borussia Dortmund 1