UEFA Champions League: Besiktas vs. Borussia Dortmund Preview, Odds, Pick

Besiktas hosts Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday night at Vodafone Arena in Istanbul, searching for a way start the UCL adventure victoriously. The Turkish champions have high hopes for this campaign, aiming to advance to the knockout stage. However, in order to do so, beating the Millionaires is necessary. Borussia comes to Turkey following a wild win over Bayer in Leverkusen, fired up and in full speed. Haaland is in his usual mode, and it seems that the Norwegian slowly becomes a phenomenon that has the potential to break all the known limits when it comes to productivity.

Preview

Besiktas (+475) is without an allowed goal for the last five games, including the club-friendly against Umraniyespor, 4-0. During that stretch, they won four and played one draw on the road vs. Gaziantep.

Just to tell you that the other four events were in the Turkish Super Lig and that the most recent one took place this Saturday when Besiktas beat Yeni Malatyaspor 3-0 at home.

Former Barcelona and Juventus midfielder, and free-kick maestro, Miralem Pjanic played, which was the first start for one of the most creative players in Europe, despite his age. Besiktas likes to play open and offensive, and it is no wonder why their matches see lots of goals.

Borussia Dortmund (-195) was behind in Leverkusen on two occasions, but in the end, Haaland and the boys took home all three points, winning 3-4. It was their fifth consecutive event with both teams scoring, and the seventh overall with over 2.5 goals, including the preseason games.

What we need to tell is that in all but one game since the start of the season, the Millionaires haven’t scored at least twice. Now, we strongly believe that Borussia’s productivity would be even higher if it weren’t for all the irresponsible play upfront, but that is up to Marco Rose to solve and improve.

When it comes to Dortmund’s style of play, it has no difference when playing at home or on the road. The attack is their choice, and the Millionaires aren’t changing that.

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Things are not great for Besiktas, as Domagoj Vida, Alex Teixeira, and Georges-Kevin N’Koudou all picked up hard knocks against Malatyasport that forced them to go out. If one of them isn’t ready for Tuesday, that would be a big blow for the hosts.

On the other side, Thorghan Hazard is questionable, the same as Nico Schulz. Emre Can is out, Zagadou and Gio Reyna as well. Several other less important players won’t travel to Istanbul too.

Head to Head Games

In 1989, Borussia eliminated Besiktas from the Cup Winners’ Cup, beating them 2-1 in Germany and 0-1 on the road. Those two matches are the only official between these clubs.

Prediction

Our pick here is over 2.5 goals because of the highly offensive philosophy of play on both sides. Besiktas is going to attack, as they have no other option at home, while Dortmund always tries to score. When we put these two against one another, high efficiency should be easily achieved at Vodafone Park.

Pick: Over 2.5 goals -180

Here are the previews for more UEFA Champions League games:

• Barcelona vs. Bayern Munich
• Chelsea vs. Zenit
• Club Brugge vs. PSG
• Manchester City vs. RB Leipzig
• Inter Milan vs. Real Madrid
• Liverpool vs. Inter Milan