The more ranked European match of matchday six from the Champions League comes from Germany where Borussia Dortmund taking on third placed Barcelona at the Westfalenstadion on Wednesday.
Each team has earned their points from their first five matches, and both are favourites to go through via the top half of the table to the last 16.
Since they provided arguably the performance of their European campaign away in Croatia in the 3-0 win over Dinamo Zagreb on match day five, Dortmund has not won again.
Two consecutive 1-1 in Bundesliga game against Bayern Munich and Borussia Monchengladbach put Dortmund in the sixth place in the league path to the Champions league places and twelve point behind the leaders Bayern Munich.
The draw with Bayern snapped a 13-match winning streak at home, although that was a rather impressive run here under Nuri Sahin, as Dortmund won eight out of their first nine at home this season.
Generally speaking, BVB have been rather impressive in the Champions League, and now the club has the chance to secure five of its first six victories in the competition since 1997/98 season when the club was a holder of the title.
Moreso, attacking force has been the key to this tremendous start with Dortmund having struck 16 times in the first five; more than all others apart from Thomas Tuchel and the next opponent’s manager Hansi Flick when his team when he was in Loris champions league team .
A thrashing of Celtic and a more narrow victory against Sturm Graz has helped them record 100% winning start in this competition at home, but that will be put a great test here.
Dortmund has lost all of their previous encounters with Barça; they have faced no other team in Europe’s version of football more often without a triumph.
Given that Sahin's team has already lost 5-2 to Real Madrid this season, bringing their streak of games without a clean sheet to nine against Spanish opponents, Spanish clubs in general have proven problematic.
Although this appears to be Dortmund's most difficult matchup of their last three games, Barcelona will have more difficult January assignments, including trips to Benfica and hosts to Atalanta. Thus far, only one of Barcelona's five games has been against a team that was seeded in the top two pots.
Following early-season indications that they could contend for a league and European double, Flick's team's form has also somewhat declined.
After giving up the lead twice in a 2-2 draw with Real Betis on Saturday, Barcelona has now only won two of their previous six games, letting Real and Atletico Madrid cut the gap at the top of La Liga.
However, the Catalan team has stayed steady in Europe, defeating Brest 3-0 in their most recent match to keep their spot in the top eight.
However, Barca lost to Las Palmas at home a few days later, and they haven't played at Montjuic since. This is now their third consecutive away game.
However, given that they have won six of their 13 away games this season by three goals or more and scored 37 goals, that shouldn't dissuade them in the slightest.
Barca has the chance to win five consecutive UCL games for the first time in four years, and because they have scored at least three goals in each of those four victories, they will turn to their forward line for motivation.
Maximilian Beier will not play because he also sustained an injury in the tie with Gladbach, but Julian Brandt and Karim Adeyemi are also running out of time to be healthy.
Gio Reyna has been back for just over two weeks, but manager Sahin hasn't given him a meaningful runout yet, and it's unlikely that he will get one here either.
Wojciech Szczesny, who came out of retirement to join the team earlier in the season, is favored to Inaki Pena, who continues to fill in goal due to Marc-Andre ter Stegen's season-ending injury.
