Borussia Dortmund vs Shakhtar Donetsk facts

Borussia Dortmund take on Shakhtar Donetsk for the first time in 12 years as the teams conclude their league phase campaigns in the UEFA Champions League.

The German side have 12 points although their hopes have suffered a blow with successive defeats, the 2-1 Matchday 7 loss at Bologna proving to be Nuri Şahin's last match in charge.

Shakhtar have seven points, recording their second win in this season's competition with a 2-0 victory against Brest last time out at the Arena AufSchalke in Gelsenkirchen, home of Dortmund's local rivals and the venue for the Ukrainian champions' home league phase matches.

Previous meetings

Matches 4
Dortmund wins 3
Shakhtar wins 0
Draws 1
Dortmund goals 10
Shakhtar goals 3

2001/02 Champions League third qualifying round
Shakhtar 0-2 Dortmund
Dortmund 3-1 Shakhtar
Goals from Lars Ricken and Sunday Oliseh in Donetsk put Dortmund in control of the tie; although an early Julius Aghahowe strike in Germany gave Shakhtar hope, Jan Koller scored twice in the second half and Márcio Amoroso once to end their challenge.

2012/13 Champions League round of 16
Shakhtar 2-2 Dortmund
Dortmund 3-0 Shakhtar
Jürgen Klopp's side, who would go on to reach the final, twice came from behind in Donetsk, Robert Lewandowski and Mats Hummels cancelling out goals from Darijo Srna – now Shakhtar's director of football – and Douglas Costa. The home second leg proved more straightforward thanks to first-half goals from Felipe Santana and Mario Götze, Jakub Błaszczykowski completing the win in the second.

Form guide

Borussia Dortmund

Record vs Ukrainian clubs: W6 D2 L0 F20 A8
Home record vs Ukrainian clubs: W4 D0 L0

Dortmund's last games against a Ukrainian club were those 2013 fixtures against Shakhtar.

Their second-leg success made it four wins in their last five games against teams from Ukraine (D1).

Dortmund have scored ten goals in winning their four home games against Ukrainian visitors, conceding only one and keeping clean sheets in the last three.

Dortmund are in the Champions League proper for the 19th time overall and the ninth successive season. All but two of their last 11 campaigns have extended into the knockout rounds.

In 2023/24, Edin Terzić's team finished first in Group F ahead of Paris Saint-Germain, AC Milan and Newcastle before beating PSV Eindhoven (3-1 aggregate) and Atlético. BVB then won 1-0 both home and away against Paris to reach a third European Cup final but Madrid proved too strong at Wembley, running out 2-0 winners.

Dortmund have won ten of their last 20 home European games (D6 L4), the 7-1 Matchday 2 defeat of Celtic their biggest home Champions League victory. They have also beaten Sturm Graz 1-0 in Germany this season before going down 2-3 to Barcelona on Matchday 6 – ending a 14-game unbeaten home run that included ten wins.

European champions in 1997 and also runners-up in 2013, Dortmund have been eliminated in the last 16 in three of their last six Champions League campaigns.

BVB finished fifth in the Bundesliga in 2023/24, their lowest league placing since finishing seventh in 2014/15.

Şahin replaced Terzić as coach in the summer.

Shakhtar Donetsk

Record vs German clubs: W10 D8 L11 F35 A58
Away record vs German clubs: W6 D1 L7

Shakhtar have already played German opponents in this season's league phase, losing 1-5 against Bayern München in Gelsenkirchen on Matchday 6.

That made it four defeats in five games against Bundesliga clubs, the exception a 4-1 victory at Leipzig on Matchday 1 in 2022/23; Shakhtar lost the reverse fixture 4-0.

The success at Leipzig was Shakhtar's fourth in their last six matches away to German clubs (L2); they had managed two wins in their first eight (D1 L5).

The Ukrainian side are making an eighth successive appearance in the Champions League proper, and a 19th overall. They have featured in all but one of the last 15 seasons.

The Pitmen have failed to progress to the knockout rounds in each of the last six campaigns.

In 2023/24, Shakhtar were third in Group H, bowing out with a decisive 5-3 defeat at Porto on Matchday 6.

That sent them into the UEFA Europa League but Marseille proved too strong in their knockout round play-offs (2-2 h, 1-3 a).

A 3-2 win at Antwerp on Matchday 2 last season is one of only two victories in Shakhtar's last 14 away games in the Champions League proper (D3 L9).

Victory at Antwerp is also one of only two in Shakhtar's last 15 European away matches – a sequence that includes 11 defeats, including at Arsenal (0-1) and PSV Eindhoven (2-3) this season.

Under Marino Pušić, who was appointed in October, Shakhtar won their 15th Ukrainian Premier League in 2023/24 and also lifted the Ukrainian Cup for a record 14th time; it was their ninth domestic double.

Links and trivia

Taras Stepanenko was a late substitute in Shakhtar's 3-0 loss in Dortmund in 2013.

Latest news

Dortmund

BVB parted company with coach Nuri Şahin after the defeat at Bologna having lost four successive games and won only one of the last nine (D3 L5). Under-19 coach Mike Tullberg has been appointed as caretaker.

Tullberg's first game in charge was a 2-2 draw at home to Werder Bremen on Saturday, a game Dortmund had led by two goals after Nico Schlotterbeck's first-half red card..

For the first time ever, Dortmund lost the first three Bundesliga matches of a calendar year: 2-3 against Leverkusen on 10 January, 2-4 at Holstein Kiel four days later and 2-0 at Eintracht Frankfurt on 17 January.

That is the first time BVB have lost three successive league games since October-November 2017.

Jamie Gittens, who scored against Leverkusen and Kiel, has seven league goals this season; his previous best was three in 2022/23.

Serhou Guirassy, who has 21 goals in 28 games for club and country this season, scored his 50th Bundesliga goal against Leverkusen and opened the scoring on Saturday.

For the first time in 19 years, BVB did not win any of their first six away league matches this season (D2 L4) before prevailing 3-1 in Wolfsburg on 22 December.

Felix Nmecha was taken off early in the first half on Saturday with a knock.

Niklas Süle has been sidelined by an ankle injury since 7 December.

On 14 January Dortmund announced Donyell Malen's move to Aston Villa.

Shakhtar

After a 1-0 league defeat at Polissya Zhytomyr in the final game of 2024 on 15 December, Shakhtar travelled to Türkiye for a training camp on 4 January.

The Ukrainian league will resume on 22 February with Shakhtar in third place, ten points behind leaders Dynamo Kyiv with a game in hand.

On 9 January the Hirnyky played their first friendly of the winter training camp, drawing 2-2 with fellow Champions League hopefuls GNK Dinamo Zagreb thanks to goals from Kevin and Taras Stepanenko.

On 15 January Shakhtar beat CSKA-Sofia 1-0 thanks to a goal from 18-year-old Viktor Tsukanov before Marlon Gomes, Kevin, Eguinaldo and Pedrinho scored in a 4-0 defeat of Ludogorets.

Georgiy Sudakov is Shakhtar's top scorer across all competitions with ten goals, including the second against Brest on Matchday 7.

The defeat by PSV Eindhoven on Matchday 5 ended Shakhtar's five-match winning streak; the Matchday 7 victory is only their second in six matches since (D1 L3).

Eguinaldo went off against Brest having suffered a hamstring injury.

Danylo Sikan joined Trabzonspor on 22 January.