Blueprint

The second group match brings our BVB to Belgium to take on RSC Anderlecht on our way to the next round. From our three competitors in the group phase Anderlecht is the one most unknown. We've had Arsenal several times now, Galatasaray qualified from time to time in the last years, but Anderlecht? Though playing quite constantly in European championships, only few will have seen more than a handful of matches.

Characterising Anderlecht sounds familiar to Dortmund fans:
- A young team (starting XI: 23.5 years on average)
- A massively talented 17 year old midfielder
- The better team against Galatasaray last match day, yet only a draw
- Internationally unexperienced
Sounds like a blueprint of our BVB a couple of years ago.

Anderlecht play mostly a 4-4-2 with a flat 4 in midfield. Especially Tielemans, the 17 year old hot prospect, is a player to watch. He was born just 21 days after Dortmund won the Champions League in 1997! Surprisingly, he was not yet bought by Chelsea and parked 'on loan' at another team. Because of the young team not many players are well known throughout Europe, yet. Probably, Aleksandar Mitrovic will ring a bell for most football fans. The Serbian striker scored already five goals in nine appearances in the league. In general Anderlecht is doing well in their domestic league. After nine match days they lead with a four point gap, haven't lost yet and scored two goals on average. They also conceded one goal on average which is way better than us! Nonetheless, their start into the Champions League campaign could have been better. Being in the lead for 90 minutes, they conceded a late equaliser in injury time.

Our BVB started perfectly into this year's Champions League campaign. We dominated Arsenal and won 2-0. Two NIL(!) which is the most surprising thing this season. Hopefully, we'll show our Champions League face again and get another three points to our savings account. This would mean we're half way through, giving us some confidence for Hamburg and the international break.

Possible line-ups:

RSC Anderlecht: Proto – Colin, Mbemba, Nuytinck, Deschacht – Najar, defour, Tielemans, Conte – Suarez, Mitrovic

Borussia Dortmund: Weidenfeller – Schmelzer, Hummels, Sokratis, Piszczek – Kehl, Jojic - Großkreutz, Kagawa, Aubameyang – Ramos

Referee: Tagliavento (Italy)

Seb, 30.09.2014