Borussia Dortmund × Villarreal · Champions League

Borussia Dortmund host Villarreal in the Champions League on Tuesday 8 September at 20:00 BST. Two clubs that play in yellow, arriving from opposite directions: one of German football's biggest crowds on one side, and on the other a club from a small town on the Spanish coast that has made itself at home among continental heavyweights. Even the kit clash, which forces one of them to change, tells you what the meeting is about.

The format changes what the result is worth. The league phase puts thirty six clubs in a single table, and each of them faces eight different opponents, four at home and four away, once only. There is no return leg against the same side: Dortmund spend one of their four home dates here, Villarreal one of their four away trips, and the final position in that table decides who goes straight through and who is sent to a playoff.

On the pitch, tempo is the thing to watch. The Spanish side tend to ask for the ball on the floor, using short passes to pull opponents forward; the German side prefer space to run into, breaking quickly after regaining possession and attacking the flanks. Whoever imposes their own speed gains the edge, and it is worth watching how Villarreal deal with losing the ball near their own box, and who the coaches turn to on the bench once the scoreline in a one-off game starts to bite.