Manchester United vs Borussia Dortmund Tickets

When it comes to European encounters, it doesn’t get much bigger than this. Manchester United and Borussia Dortmund are two of the most well-supported teams across the continent, and fans of both teams will be keen to be there, live and in person, to see this game pan out.

Manchester United, quite rightly, are considered by many as among the biggest teams in Europe, but their form in the UEFA Champions League over the past decade definitely does not reflect that.

Manchester United may well have won three top-tier titles, in 1968, 1999, and 2008, but since their UEFA Champions League Final loss at Wembley in 2011, at the hands of FC Barcelona (the second time they had lost to the Catalan giants in European finals in the space of two years), they have barely made an impact.

Between 2011 and 2023, they have managed just two Quarter-Final losses against Bayern Munich and Barcelona, and on some occasions, they’ve missed out on UEFA Champions League action completely.

Sir Alex Ferguson’s exit has left them with a massive hole to fill, and a number of managerial selections have not paid off, but Dutch manager Erik ten Hag did manage to secure a top-four finish and the Carabao Cup from his first season in charge and that has been a base to build from.

You could perhaps draw some parallels in terms of how the past decade has gone for Manchester United’s visitors, Borussia Dortmund. In 2011/12, they won the Bundesliga, and it was the second in a row for then-manager Jurgen Klopp.

The German left three years later to take over at Anfield, and the Liverpool manager has been missed. Fans of Die Borussen have had to watch as arch-rivals Bayern Munich have won 11 Bundesliga titles in a row.

Additionally, since reaching the final of the UEFA Champions League in 2012/13, when they lost to Bayern Munich at Wembley Stadium, they, too, have failed to make a concerted impact on the competition.

In 1996/97, the club did lift the UEFA Champions League trophy after defeating Juventus 3-1 in Munich, of all places, but since then, they have just the one failed final venture to show for their efforts.

Manchester United vs Borussia Dortmund Head-to-Head

These two teams have met in three different European campaigns. The first of these came in 1956/57 in the European Cup, with Manchester United winning the first leg of their First Round clash 3-2 at Old Trafford before drawing the second leg 0-0.

Their next encounter was in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, and it was an occasion that did not flatter the German side. United legend Sir Bobby Charlton scored a hat-trick in the first leg in Dortmund as they ran riot in a 6-1 thrashing.

Charlton scored twice in the second leg also as Manchester United completed a 10-1 aggregate success.

However, in the most crucial fixture between the two, it was Dortmund that came out on top in a UEFA Champions League Semi-Final in 1997. Ottmar Hitzfeld’s side won both legs 1-0 and booked their place in the final, which they duly won.

Manchester United vs Borussia Dortmund Connections

A host of players have represented both teams over the years. These include Japanese attacker Shinji Kagawa, Adnan Januzaj, Marcel Sabitzer, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, and England international Jadon Sancho.