Borussia Dortmund boss Jurgen Klopp has told supporters to "leave their negative thoughts at home" when the Germans host Real Madrid on Wednesday. The plea comes after quite a few fans have criticised the departure of Mario Gotze, who will join Bayern Munich in the summer for 32 million pounds. "This is too big for us to concern ourselves with any other issue. The Real game is too important," he said.
Gotze, just 20 years of age, will become the most expensive German player of all time when the midfielder joins Bundesliga champions Bayern on 1 July. "If anybody doesn't manage to realise how much effort has gone into getting us to where we are then maybe they should not bother turning up," Klopp said. "If anybody cannot hide their disappointment then it would be nice if they would pass their tickets onto somebody who can. This team deserves to be supported. I want to say once again: leave the negative thoughts at home, come here and give us everything you've got, and let us beat Real Madrid."
Klopp's team have had the better of Real Madrid this season, beating them at home 2-1 in the group stages and coming away from the Bernabeu with a 1-1 draw. "That home win was a fantastic game," said Dortmund midfielder Jakub Blaszczykowski. "We then went to Madrid and played one of our greatest ever performances. We have a lot of respect for Real, but we have already shown what quality we have in the team and we want to show it again."
On the other hand Real Madrid boss Jose Mourinho is confident that his team can get a good result in Dortmund and he has already announced the first eleven. "Madrid are one of those clubs where finishing second counts for nothing. So we have to reach the final and then win that," Mourinho said. "We will play with Diego Lopez, Sergio Ramos, Pepe, Raphael Varane, Fabio Coentrao, Sami Khedira, Xabi Alonso, Mesut Ozil, Gonzalo Higuain, Cristiano Ronaldo and hopefully Angel Di Maria," he added.
Here are the odds for the match at Bet365:
Borussia Dortmund win - 7/4
Draw - 13/5
Real Madrid win - 13/8
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