Borussia Dortmund - Real Madrid UEFA Champions League final: what is their head-to-head record?

Borussia Dortmund and Real Madrid go head to head in the 2023/24 Champions League final on Saturday (1 June) and if past meetings between the teams are anything to go by, we should be in for a treat at Wembley Stadium in London.

Dortmund - Real Madrid goals per game

The two teams have been fairly regular opponents in the competitions over the years, facing each other on 14 occasions, although this will be the first time they cross paths in the final.

Those previous encounters have produced an impressive 43 goals (3.07 per game), which should at least give us hope of the run of low-scoring Champions League finals coming to an end (the last four have all ended 1-0).

Given they are the Champions League specialists, you won’t be surprised to learn Real Madrid lead the head-to-head with six victories to Dortmund’s three, with five draws. Los Blancos have been responsible for 24 of the 43 goals in the fixtures, five more than BVB.

And there have, of course, been some classic encounters between the two sides.

Dortmund - Real Madrid: all previous Champions League meetings

The second leg of their first ever Champions League tie, in the semi-finals in 1997/98, was delayed for over an hour due to the goalposts collapsing at Estadio Santiago Bernabéu, caused by supporters claiming on a support fence which held them upright. Replacement goalposts from the club’s training ground had to shipped down to the stadium. How times have changed.

In terms of the action on-field action, the knockout ties in 2012/13 and 2013/14 are perhaps the most memorable.

In the first of those two seasons, Robert Lewandowski famously scored four times as Jürgen Klopp’s Dortmund thrashed Madrid 4-1 in the first leg of the semi-finals in Germany, before somehow avoiding being on the receiving end of a remontada at the Bernabéu. Goals from Karim Benzema and Sergio Ramos in the 83rd and 88th meant Los Blancos needed only one more to progress to the final but, unusually for them, it didn’t come.

The Germans went on to lose the final - their most recent until this year - to compatriots Bayern Munich at Wembley.

Real Madrid begin Champions League dominance

12 months later, the Spaniards got their revenge in the quarter-finals in a tie that was almost a mirror image. Real Madrid looked to be safely through to the last four after a 3-0 home win in the first leg, but two first-half goals from Marco Reus in the second gave Dortmund hope of a famous comeback.

However, Carlo Ancelotti’s team held firm and ultimately reached the final, where they defeated Atlético Madrid in dramatic fashion in Lisbon.

That proved to be the start of an incredible run of dominance in the Champions League, which they now have the chance to extend. A win in London means Madrid will have been European champions 15 times, and six of their triumphs will have come since 2014.