Borussia Dortmund and Chelsea will lock horns at the Signal Iduna Park for their first leg of the UEFA Champions League round of 16 fixtures. BVB progressed to the knockout stages of the competition after finishing second in their group behind EPL champions Manchester City while the Blues topped a group that included Italian powerhouse AC Milan. Ever since resuming from the Qatar FIFA World Cup break, Borussia Dortmund now have a six matches winning streak across all competitions. Dortmund are currently third in the Bundesliga table but are very much in the hotly contested title race with only eight points separating the top six teams in the league with only 14 games remaining. 

BVB will go into the match drawing inspiration from the fact that they have only lost 4 out of the last 21 UEFA Champions League matches they have played on home soil. However, three of those defeats have been against English opposition. Indeed, the German giants have struggled against Premier League teams over the years failing to win any of their last ten meetings with English opposition with eight of those games ending in defeat. In fact, the last time they tasted victory against an English side was back in 2016  when Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored a brace in a 2-1 win against Tottenham in the UEFA Europa League competition. They managed to finish above both Sevilla and Copenhagen to advance to the last 16 despite winning only two of their six matches in the group stages. They will now be looking forward to beating an out-of-sorts Chelsea side who are currently struggling in the Premier League. Dortmund will be aiming to reach the quarter-finals for just the third time in the last nine seasons.

Graham Potter surprisingly still retains the support of Chelsea's hierarchy as the manager despite only winning 3 of his last 14 games in charge. The Blues have only one win to their name out of the eight matches that they have played this year and each of their last three EPL fixtures have ended in a stalemate. Chelsea currently seat ninth in the Premier League and their hope to finish in the top four continues to fade each and every passing match day. They are ten points adrift of fourth-placed Newcastle United. If they wish to compete in Europe's elite club competition again next season, the Blues may be required to go all the way in the Champions League.

The 2020-21 champions had to endure a rocky start to their group stage fixtures earlier on in the season after they suffered a 1-0 shock defeat to Dinamo Zagreb a result that brought to an end Thomas Tuchel's tenure as the Chelsea boss. However, they bounced back to win four games and finish top of their group ahead of second-placed AC Milan. The Blues have failed to win any of their last nine matches on the road across all competitions ever since the 2-1 away win against Red Bull Salzburg back in October last year. Thus, it could prove challenging for the Western Londoners to secure a positive result against Dortmund tonight adding to the fact that they have only managed 3 wins out of their last 11 meetings against German opposition.