ISTANBUL
Real Madrid will aim for a morale-boosting win against UEFA Champions League (UCL) leader Borussia Dortmund when they meet on Tuesday in a highly-anticipated match of the week.
The game will kick off at 1900GMT at Estadio Santiago Bernabeu, which has an over 80,000-strong crowd capacity.
Istvan Kovacs from Romania will officiate the critical match for both teams.
Having beaten Stuttgart 3-1 in the opening game, Carlo Ancelotti’s side took a shocking defeat in week 2 against Lille as a 36-match unbeaten streak came to an end in all competitions for Madrid.
Real Madrid are 17th in the league phase standings and look to bounce back after a hard start.
Only the top eight teams in the 36-team table will qualify automatically for the last 16.
Three Madrid stars have injury problems before Tuesday’s clash.
Spanish right-back Daniel Carvajal, Austrian defender David Alaba, and Moroccan attacking midfielder Brahim Diaz are expected to miss the UCL game.
Borussia Dortmund, the league phase leader, made the perfect start to their Champions League campaign with a 3-0 win over Club Brugge on the road.
On matchday 2, the black and yellows set a new club record for their biggest win in the Champions League as they hammered Celtic 7-1 at home.
Dortmund club’s Yan Couto, Karim Adeyemi, Giovanni Reyna and Julien Durbanville are still having injuries to miss the game.
Matchday 3 Fixture:
Tuesday:
AC Milan – Club Brugge
Monaco – Crvena Zvezda
Paris Saint-Germain – PSV Eindhoven
Juventus – Stuttgart
Arsenal – Shakhtar Donetsk
Aston Villa – Bologna
Girona – Slovan Bratislava
Sturm Graz – Sporting CP
Real Madrid – Borussia Dortmund
Wednesday:
Atalanta – Celtic
Brest – Bayer Leverkusen
Manchester City – Sparta Prague
Leipzig – Liverpool
Barcelona – Bayern Munich
Atletico Madrid – Lille
Benfica – Feyenoord
Salzburg – Dinamo Zagreb
Young Boys – Inter Milan
