Borussia Dortmund vs Real Madrid: Projected Lineups ahead of UEFA Champions League Group of Death Clash

German champions Borussia Dortmund host Spanish title holders Real Madrid at Signal Iduna Park on Wednesday October 24, 2012 in the third match day of the UEFA Champions’ League group stages. It is only hours before kickoff in one of the most anticipated matches of the group and it will be exciting to see what happens.

The sides represent two of the four domestic championship winners that make up Group D of this season’s tournament in the so dubbed, “Group of Death.” This is the first of two back to back games for the clubs that is set to possibly make or break their UCL group stage and set the tone for a potential run at progression to the knockout stages.

Starting with host side Borussia Dortmund, the German champions have had a rough start to their domestic campaign as they currently sit 12 points off the pace of Bayern Munich’s perfect opening record of eight straight victories. Jürgen Klopp’s men will have to be wary of a Spanish side that is just as frustrated with their start to their own league campaign that sees them in a similar position as their opponents.

Real Madrid have struggled just as bad to get their league campaign off to a solid start, as they reside in the fourth place spot in their respected competition, just as Dortmund do in theirs, eight points back from Barcelona at the top of the table.

For Dortmund the task at hand will truly be finding a way to shutdown Cristiano Rolando. The Portuguese winger has been on his usual goal trail this season and looks keen to fire Madrid to the top if he can manage.

Injuries remain a problem for Real Madrid with Alvaro Arbeloa, Marcelo and Fabio Coentrao all out at the back, while Borussia Dortmund should see the return of Mario Goetze and Marcel Schmelzer to the first team and Ilkay Guendogan to the bench.

Predicted Starting XI’s

Borussia Dortmund: Roman Weidenfeller; Lukasz Piszczek, Neven Subotic, Mats Hummels, Marcel Schmelzer; Sven Bender, Sebastian Kehl; Mario Götze, Marco Reus, Kevin Großkreutz; Robert Lewandowski

Real Madrid: Iker Casillas: Sergio Ramos, Raphael Varane, Pepe, Michael Essien; Sami Khedira, Xabi Alonso; Angel Di Maria, Luka Modric, Cristiano Ronaldo; Karim Benzema