Borussia Dortmund know how to open a Champions League campaign in front of their own people. History says so.
Under the lights, with the Südtribüne roaring, BVB have built a habit of starting strongly at home in Europe’s elite competition: four wins, two draws, just a single defeat in opening home fixtures. And even that lone blemish comes with a sizeable asterisk.
Their very first Champions League night, back on 13 September 1995, brought a harsh lesson. Ottmar Hitzfeld’s Dortmund ran into a ruthless Juventus side who would go on to lift the trophy, and lost 3-1. Since then, no visiting team has celebrated an opening-night victory in Dortmund.
The recent numbers are even more emphatic. Across their last four Champions League openers at home, Dortmund have not conceded once. The sequence reads like a slow tightening of the screw.
- In 2012, they edged Ajax 1-0, a tense, tactical affair decided by a single moment.
- Two years later, Arsenal arrived and left on the wrong end of a 2-0 scoreline, overrun by Dortmund’s intensity.
- In 2019, Barcelona came to town and escaped with a 0-0 draw, but only after surviving waves of pressure and missed chances.
- Then, in 2022, Copenhagen were swept aside 3-0 as Dortmund turned dominance into goals with clinical ease.
That is the backdrop for anyone walking into this stadium on matchday one: a wall of noise, and a record that leans heavily in the home side’s favour.
Villarreal CF step into a very different narrative.
The Spanish club have never won on the opening matchday of the UEFA Champions League. Not once. Their record on matchday one reads three draws and two defeats, a pattern of stumbles before they find their stride.
The most recent chapter came at the start of last season, when they travelled to Tottenham Hotspur and slipped to a 1-0 defeat. Tight, competitive, but ultimately empty-handed.
So the contrast is stark. Dortmund, almost automatic under the floodlights of an opening European night at home. Villarreal, still searching for a first statement win to break a lingering habit.
One fortress. One slow starter. Only one of those trends can hold.
