Confirmed Lineups: Borussia Dortmund vs. Sporting CP | OneFootball

With slightly over an hour to go until kick-off, Borussia Dortmund's head coach Niko Kovac has announced his starting eleven to take on Sporting Lisbon. The team from the Portuguese capital currently sit in first place after 22 rounds of Liga Portugal action, but have left themselves with a mountain to climb at the Westfalenstadion.

Meanwhile, Die Schwarzgelben will hope to secure a place in the Round of 16 if tonight's second-leg goes well for them. With a healthy 3-0 aggregate lead carried over from last Wednesday, BVB will be confident of advancing without too much fuss against their Portuguese opponents in front of their famous Yellow Wall.

Tonight, Dortmund make a solitary alteration to their line-up which succumbed to a disappointing 2-0 defeat at the hands of VfL Bochum last Saturday afternoon. Gregor Kobel remains in goals as Julian Ryerson returns to fitness and replaces Niklas Süle at right-back. Emre Can captains the side from centre-half with Nico Schlotterbeck and Daniel Svensson.

Felix Nmecha (knee) remains on the sidelines, therefore the midfield consists of a Pascal Groß and Marcel Sabitzer double pivot. Karim Adeyemi and Jamie Gittens bring the speed on the flanks, as Julian Brandt slots in behind leading goal-scorer Serhou Guirassy up top.

As for the hosts, Sporting will require somewhat of a minor miracle if they are to oust BVB out of Europe's premier competition. Tonight, head coach Rui Borges lines up in a 5-2-3 formation with Morten Hjulmand as captain. Neither of ex-Mainz man Jeremiah St.Juste or former St.Pauli striker Viktor Gyökeres travelled with the squad to North Rhine-Westphalia.

Official lineups below:

Borussia Dortmund (4-2-3-1): Kobel - Ryerson, Can (c), Schlotterbeck, Svensson - Groß, Sabitzer - Adeyemi, Brandt, Gittens - Guirassy

Sporting CP (5-2-3): Rui Silva - Esgiao, Inacio, Diomande, Quaresma, Matheus Reis - Hjulmand (c), João Simões - Quenda, Harder, Biel