THE CHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAM-PIOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONS

Tottenham Hotspur host Borussia Dortmund at Wembley Stadium in the first Champions League group stage match for both clubs today. Usually Wembley Stadium is reserved for Champions League finals, but like last year, Spurs have made it their home for this competition. Last season wasn’t especially great for Spurs at Wembley. A win tonight will help to button up that narrative.

Starting Lineups:

Match Date, Time and Location

Wednesday, September 13, 2017, 2:45 p.m. (USA), 7:45 pm (UK)
Wembley Stadium, London, England
Match official: Gianluca Rocchi (ITA)

TV Channels

United Kingdom: BT Sport 4K / BT Sport 3
USA: Fox Sports 1
Canada: TSN4, RDS 2
Australia: beIN Sports 3

Other countries can find their match listings at livesoccertv.com

Streaming

United Kingdom: BT Sport Go
USA: Fox Sports Go / Fox Soccer2Go / fubo.tv (free 7-day trial)

Radio

Audio streamed at tottenhamhotspur.com (requires free OneHotspur membership), also often at BBC Radio London, BBC Radio 5 Live, and TalkSport

Borussia Dortmund is beatable.

A year and a half ago, Tottenham went up against Dortmund in the Round of 16 of the Europa League... and got their butts handed to them. It wasn’t all because Dortmund were good and Spurs were bad (although Dortmund were good that year) — Spurs were trying to chase down eventual Premier League champions Leicester City at the time, and Mauricio Pochettino made the decision to prioritize the league over Europe. The Tottenham side that went out against Dortmund at the Westfalenstadion included Tom Carroll, Nacer Chadli, Josh Onomah, and Ryan Mason. They lost 5-1 on aggregate.

But it feels different this time. For starters, it’s the Champions League, Spurs are mostly healthy, and don’t (yet) have a league title to think about. They’re also coming of a thumping win at Everton and are going up against a Dortmund side missing seven players due to injury. If there were ever a time to play Dortmund, it’s now.

Not that it’s going to be easy. Dortmund may have lost Ousmane Dembele to Barcelona this summer, but they still have Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and American starlet Christian Pulisic, two players that should make any defensive line swallow hard. Even banged up, anyone who thinks Dortmund is going to roll over for this match hasn’t been watching much Dortmund the past five years or so.

Spurs are without the suspended Dele Alli, but Harry Kane is back on form now that September is here, and Son Heung-Min should slot into the starting 11 without much of a hitch. Christian Eriksen is still amazing. We might get a start from new right back Serge Aurier. There’s every reason to think that Spurs can come out with at least a result today. And they need one, because there’s still a trip to Germany to come, as well as two matches against Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale, and the reigning European champions to come. One game at a time.

COYS!

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