Borussia Dortmund vs SL Benfica -Tuchel promises attacking display in second leg clash - 7M sport

Borussia Dortmund vs SL Benfica -Tuchel promises attacking display in second leg clash



Posted Wednesday, March 08, 2017 by PA

Borussia Dortmund boss Thomas Tuchel has promised an attacking display from his side as they look to overturn a 1-0 deficit to Benfica in their Champions League last-16 tie.

Kostas Mitroglou scored the only goal of the game in Portugal three weeks ago, but Dortmund missed a number of chances and saw Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang's penalty saved by Ederson.

The Germans have been in fine form since, scoring 12 goals in three games, and Tuchel sees no reason to change his approach.

He told a press conference reported by uefa.com: "If I were the coach of Chelsea, Juve or Atletico, maybe I would come up with a different answer.

"But when the floodlights go on tomorrow night in Dortmund and all the people will support us, then it is about attacking.

"We feel ready to go through. We have the feeling we can do it and it's the right moment to do it now. We feel the spirit in the team and the team knows it is capable of scoring lots of goals."

Dortmund were arguably the stand-out team of the group stages, winning Group F ahead of Real Madrid and scoring an unprecedented 21 goals.

They also have history on their side having won all five previous home matches against Portuguese teams, including a 2-0 win over Porto at the same stage last season.

Midfielder Gonzalo Castro said: "We could see in the first leg that we clearly were the better side, so that makes us the favourites tomorrow. But we will have to be wary not to concede at home, or things will get really difficult.

"We are down 1-0 - sure, it is dangerous but, given how many chances we created, we can be confident. However, we have seen how strong Benfica are as well and that they can score out of the blue."

One setback for Dortmund was seeing midfielder Marco Reus join Sven Bender, Sebastian Rode and Mario Gotze on the sidelines after he suffered a hamstring injury in the weekend's 6-2 victory over Bayer Leverkusen.

"I cannot tell you how we will replace Marco Reus tomorrow," said Tuchel. "But there is no doubt he is a loss, he was in outstanding form."

Filipe Augusto was a doubt for Benfica but has been named in the squad, although defender Ljubomir Fejsa will miss the match with his own ankle injury.

Benfica have only twice won matches in Germany but go into the clash on the back of a seven-game winning run, with Mitroglou having scored 18 goals in his last 17 games.

The Portuguese giants also have a good recent record in the Champions League and are looking to reach the quarter-finals for the third time in six seasons.



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