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Borussia Dortmund v Porto background

Borussia Dortmund can take comfort from having won all three of their home games against Portuguese opponents as they welcome Porto in their round of 32 opener.

Dortmund celebrate one of their ten Group C goals
Dortmund celebrate one of their ten Group C goals ©Getty Images

Borussia Dortmund welcome FC Porto in their UEFA Europa League round of 32 opener, which could provide a new experience for 34-year-old goalkeeper Iker Casillas.

Previous meetings
• The sides are meeting for the first time in UEFA competition.

• Dortmund have won all three of their home games against Portuguese opponents – scoring ten goals in the process – but have lost all three of their fixtures in Portugal.

• Porto's 29 matches against German clubs have ended W12 D7 L10 (W8 D3 L3 in Portugal – W3 D4 L7 in Germany). However, their most notable result against German opponents came on neutral territory, in Vienna, where they beat FC Bayern München 2-1 in the 1987 European Champion Clubs' Cup final in Vienna.

Form guide
• Dortmund have lost their last two UEFA Europa League games 1-0. They confirmed their place in the round of 32 by taking ten points from their first four group matches.

• Porto missed out on a place in this season's UEFA Champions League round of 16 after losing their final two Group G games without scoring.

• Prior to this season, Dortmund had not featured in the UEFA Europa League since an unsuccessful group stage campaign in 2010/11. They were twice losing UEFA Cup finalists, beaten by Juventus in 1993 and Feyenoord in 2002.

• Porto reached the 2013/14 quarter-finals in their most recent UEFA Europa League participation. They have won the competition twice, overcoming Celtic FC in the 2003 UEFA Cup final and SC Braga in the 2011 UEFA Europa League decider.

Trivia and links
• The journey from Porto to Dortmund is around 1,700km.

• Dortmund are one of four clubs to have made it all the way from the third qualifying round to the round of 32 this season, along with Athletic Club, AS Saint-Étienne and FC Krasnodar.

• Dortmund's Henrikh Mkhitaryan has hit the woodwork three times in the UEFA Europa League since matchday one – more than any other player.

• Casillas has made 163 UEFA club competition appearances – level with Clarence Seedorf in third place on the all-time leaderboard. However, he is yet to play in the UEFA Cup or UEFA Europa League.

• Dortmund midfielder Nuri Şahin and Casillas were team-mates at Real Madrid CF in the 2011/12 season; Nuri remained a Madrid player until summer 2014, but spent the final two years of his time there out on loan.

• Should Dortmund capture the UEFA Europa League this season, they would become only the fifth club to have won all three major UEFA trophies (European Champion Clubs' Cup/UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League/UEFA Cup and UEFA Cup Winners' Cup) after AFC Ajax, Bayern, Juventus and Chelsea FC.

The coaches
• Thomas Tuchel is in his first season as Dortmund coach after replacing Jürgen Klopp in the summer. Tuchel, 42, made his name in a five-year spell in charge of 1. FSV Mainz 05, but took 12 months out before assuming his current role.

• José Peseiro took charge of Porto in January, replacing Julen Lopetegui. Once Carlos Queiroz's assistant at Real Madrid, Peseiro has coached Sporting Clube de Portugal, FC Rapid Bucureşti and SC Braga, and has managed Saudi Arabia's national team, as well as clubs in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt.

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