UEFA Champions League preview: Real Madrid v Borussia Dortmund

Borussia Dortmund manager Jurgen Klopp insists that his team is ready and raring to go for their Champions League semi-final against Real Madrid.

Dortmund scraped through to the last four of Europe’s most prestigious club competition after scoring two late goals to beat Malaga 3-2 and they were far from at their best against Mainz at the weekend, despite running out 2-0 winners.

But Klopp says that Dortmund, who have failed to defend their Bundesliga title this season, are ready for the first leg at the Westfalenstadion.

“We’re playing against the biggest club in the world, we will be ready for Real and give it everything we have,” said Klopp.

“When you’re already in the semi-finals, of course you just want to get to the final.”

The Germans have already faced Real twice this season in the group stages, emerging victorious 2-1 at home before playing out a 2-2 stalemate in Madrid.

Dortmund should take confidence from their previous encounters, while their unbeaten record in the competition this season is another welcome boost.

However, defender Mats Hummels has warned his team-mates they must still improve.

“Over time, we got more passive and have made simple mistakes that should not happen to us on Wednesday, otherwise we’ll live to regret it,” Hummels said.

As for Real, they have experienced a similar campaign to Dortmund, with the Spaniards on the verge of handing their La Liga crown to rivals Barcelona, who are 13 points clear at the summit with six games remaining.

With league glory seemingly out of the question, Jose Mourinho and his team have turned their attention to Champions League success.

Real claimed a 6-2 aggregate victory over Galatasaray in the quarter-finals and defender Pepe is hoping for some luck to fall the way of his team after losing to Bayern Munich at the same stage last year.

“Wednesday’s game is incredibly important for us – everybody in the squad is conscious of that,” said Pepe.

“We must go into the game at full throttle but not be over hasty. We should try to remain composed because we have the return leg at home.

“Failure is a very strong word to use should we not win this semi-final. We will be going out to win and hopefully with that extra bit of luck which we didn’t have at this stage last year.”