Borussia Dortmund vs Real Madrid preview - Lewandowski still believes

Posted Tuesday, April 08, 2014 by PA

Borussia Dortmund striker Robert Lewandowski insists his side can pull off the seemingly impossible and overturn a 3-0 first-leg defeat to win their Champions League quarter-final with Real Madrid on Tuesday.

The Poland striker, who missed the match at the Bernabeu through suspension, is looking for a repeat of his heroics from last season's semi-final when he scored four times in a 4-1 first-leg win over the same opponents.

Not even a repeat of that result would send the Germans into the last four this time, though.

Only Deportivo La Coruna have managed to come back from such a deficit in the Champions League, recovering from a 4-1 defeat at AC Milan to win the home leg 4-0 in 2004.

"We need to write history again," Lewandowski said.

"If we can get an early goal, then there's a small chance. We mustn't be afraid.

"We have a minimal chance. It would be crazy to think that I could score four goals again, but we are always dangerous in Dortmund."

Dortmund defender Mats Hummels summed up his side's chances by telling Germany's Kicker magazine they were somewhere in the region of "three per cent".

"The most important thing is we try to win and show our fans the passion we have for the game," said coach Jurgen Klopp.

"We've developed a knack of doing well in the second half lately - well this is the second half of the tie."

Madrid are not yet planning for a fourth successive semi-final appearance.

"It's going to be another game, a different game, away to Dortmund," forward Gareth Bale said on the club's website.

"They're obviously going to come out fighting, but we need to treat it the same as any other game.

"Obviously he's (Lewandowski) a great player, he's proven it over the years, but we just have to do out normal job like we did in the home leg and have a good defence."

Madrid will also come up against as intimidating an atmosphere at the Westfalenstadion as Dortmund faced in the first leg.

"There's supposed to be an unbelievable atmosphere," added Bale. "But we're professionals, we know how to handle it and we'll be going out there to try and win as normal."

Dortmund are still without the long-term injury absentees Jakub Blaszczykowski, Neven Subotic, Ilkay Gundogan, Sven Bender and Marcel Schmelzer, while goalkeeper Roman Weidenfeller is a doubt.

Marcelo is likely to miss out again for Madrid due to a hamstring injury, but the tournament's top goalscorer, Cristiano Ronaldo, will look to add to his 14 goals so far.