Match Pack: Borussia Dortmund vs Athletic Club (Champions League)

After losing to Arsenal FC at San Mamés in our 2025/26 Champions League opener, Athletic Club travel to Borussia Dortmund with the aim of getting a first European win of the season.

The Lions will be joined by almost 4,000 Zurigorri fans as they face a side that finished fourth in last season's Bundesliga.
 

Match Info

Signal Iduna Park, Dortmund

UEFA Champions League, League Phase MD2

Wednesday October 1, 21:00 CEST

 

Team news

Ernesto Valverde has named a 23-man squad for Tuesday night's clash.

Valverde's and Unai Simón's pre-match comments

Catch up with everything the gaffer and Unai had to say.

 

The Opponents

Head coach:

The current head coach is Niko Kovač, a Croatian born in Germany. As a player, he was a defensive midfielder who played almost 500 matches for various Bundesliga teams, including Hertha Berlin, Bayer Leverkusen and Bayern Munich, among others. 

In 2013, he moved into coaching, first taking over as the head coach of Croatia's national team. Kovač's coaching career includes spells at several prominent clubs, including Eintracht Frankfurt, Bayern Munich, Monaco and Wolfsburg. In 2019, he led Bayern Munich to the Bundesliga title.
 

Standout players:

Borussia have a reputation for developing the most talented players on the continent, providing a platform for several current and former players to shine, whether at Dortmund itself or at another club.

Dortmund's squad features a very international mix of young talent: Yan Couto (Brazil), Jobe Bellingham (England), Felix Nmecha (Germany), Maximilian Beier (Germany), Carney Chukwuemeka (England), Fabio Silva (Portugal) and Karim Ayedemi (Germany). 

These players develop more established members of the squad include: Gregor Kobel (Switzerland), Waldemar Anton (Germany), Serhou Guirassy (Guinea), Julian Brandt (Germany), Pascal Gross (Germany), Marcel Sabitzer (Austria), Emre Can (Germany) and Niklas Sule (Germany). 
 

Signal Iduna Park:

Westfalenstadion, called Signal Iduna Park for sponsorship reasons, is Dortmund’s 81,365 seater stadium. It is renowned worldwide for having one of the liveliest atmospheres in Europe thanks to its famed ‘Yellow Wall’, a 24,500-capacity standing section – the largest standing terrace in European football.
 

Recent form:

The Black-Yellows are currently second in the Bundesliga after an unbeaten start to the season. So far, they have four wins and a draw from their first five fixtures. Their last match was a 0-2 victory over 1. FSV Mainz 05.

They kicked off the 2025/26 Champions League with a 4-4 draw against Juventus in Italy. Dortmund were 2-4 up in the 90th minute but conceded two late goals.
 

Curiosities:

• Dortmund fans sing ‘You'll Never Walk Alone’ before kick-off.
• The first goal scored in the Bundesliga, Germany's top professional football league, was scored by Borussia Dortmund's Friedhelm Konietzka (1963/64).
• The motto ‘Echte Liebe’ (True Love) is an integral part of the club's identity and symbolises the community between the team and its fans.
• The club had an anti-Nazi stance during the Third Reich, which, along with other factors, caused it difficulties at the time.
• Borussia Dortmund was the first club to be listed on the German stock exchange.
• In 1966, the club became the first German team to win a European trophy, the European Cup Winners' Cup.
  
   

Previous Meetings

We’ve previously played Dortmund four times, all in pre-season friendlies: 1990/91 (1-1 in the Netherlands), 1992/93 (0-3 to BVB at San Mames), 2016/17 (0-1 to Athletic at Kybunpark) and 2021/22 (0-2 to Athletic at Kybunpark).
 

How to Watch

Check out our global TV guide to make sure you don't miss the match. 

You can also follow the fixture, and keep up to date with everything Athletic related, through the official Athletic Club app, as well as on our website and social media accounts:

Twitter

Basque: @Athletic_eus

English: @Athletic_en

Spanish: @AthleticClub

Facebook

www.facebook.com/ATHLETICCLUB/ (Spanish + Basque)

Instagram

@athleticclub (Spanish + Basque)

Website

Basque: www.athletic-club.eus/eu/

English: www.athletic-club.eus/en/

Spanish: www.athletic-club.eus/