SPORTING ALERT – Borussia Dortmund start a very strong team for Thursday’s Europa League Group C game at FK Qabala. The game is streaming live on ESPN3.com.
Manager Thomas Tuchel has decided to go strong from back to front for this game, with Roman Weidenfeller starting in goal and Mats Hummels, Sokratis Papastathopoulos, Matthias Ginter and Joo-Ho Park making up the back four.
IIkay Gundogan, Shinji Kagawa and Marco Reus will be the main supporters for lone striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in the attack, with Julian Weigl and Jonas Hofmann playing in the midfield.
Weidenfeller replaces Roman Bürki, while Jonas Hofmann comes into the starting team for Henrikh Mkhitaryan.
On-loan Manchester United forward Adnan Januzaj is among the substitutes, with Sven Bender, Lukasz Piszczek, Gonzalo Castro and Marcel Schmelzer also on the bench for the German side.
Borussia Dortmund sit atop of Group C with four points after winning one and drawing the next game.
Dortmund secured a 2-1 win over FC Krasnodar in the first game and then ended 1-1 with PAOK in the second game of the group.
Qabala are in last place at the moment with just one point after picking up a draw against PAOK.
In preparation for this game, Dortmund picked up a 2-0 victory over Mainz 05 at the weekend in the German Bundesliga.
These two sides will meet again in a quick turn around on November 5.
The Azerbaijan side, which had to go through the playoff stages to get to group round, needs to take something from this game at home on Thursday, as a defeat would make it almost impossible to qualify for the knockout stages.
Qabala: Bezotosniy, Stanković, Vernydub, Ricardinho, Dashdemirov, Dodô, Gai, Meza, Zenjov, Pereyra, Antonov Subs: Pietrzkiewicz, Mirzabekov, Abbasov, Jamalov, Sadygov, Zargarov, Zec.
Borussia Dortmund: Weidenfeller, Ginter, Sokratis, Hummels, Park, Weigl, Gündogan, Hofmann, Kagawa, Reus, Aubameyang. Subs: Bürki, Bender, Januzaj, Schmelzer, Castro, Ramos, Piszczek.
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