Borussia Dortmund vs Real Madrid: Complete head-to-head record

After Borussia Dortmund’s resurgence under Jurgen Klopp in the early 2010s, meetings with record European champions Real Madrid became far more frequent.

While the first meeting between the German giants and Spanish kings came in the late 1990s, the bulk of the history in this fixture spans the last 15 years. The Champions League has been the arena in which they have duelled, with some high-profile clashes in the latter stages of the competition.

Real Madrid boast the better record in this battle over the years, as they tend to do in any European fixture, but their have been some notable Dortmund scalps. However, one things is almost certain when they lock horns: drama.

Here is the complete head-to-head record between these two sides and some of their best match-ups.

The debut of this fixture came in the 1997/98 Champions League semi-final. Dortmund had lifted the trophy for the first and only time in their history the year before, but Real Madrid would ensure that they were dethroned in the final four.

Jupp Heynckes, who went on to manage Dortmund’s arch rivals Schalke and finished his career with plenty of trophies with Bayern Munich, led Los Blancos to a 2-0 victory in the first leg at the Santiago Bernabeu.

Goals from Fernando Morientes and Christian Karembeu downed the European champions and a goalless second leg sent Real Madrid through to the final, where they beat Juventus 1-0 in Amsterdam.

Klopp’s high-energy Dortmund faced Real Madrid four times in the 2012/13 Champions League campaign. The first two clashes came in the group stage – a win and a draw for the German side – with the latter duels coming in the semi-final.

This time it would be Dortmund who would book their ticket to the showpiece event, winning 4-1 in the first leg at Signal Iduna Park. There have been some memorable individual Champions League performances over the years, but not many come close to Robert Lewandowski’s four-goal haul against Jose Mourinho’s side.

All four strikes came from a collective distance of approximately 25 yards, with the Pole netting a second-half hat-trick in the space of just 17 minutes. Real Madrid rallied in the second leg and managed to beat Dortmund 2-0, but it was Klopp’s men that would secure a trip to Wembley in the final, where they would lose to Klassiker rivals Bayern.