Football Weekend Watch & Bet

Match information

Continental supremacy is at stake at Wembley Stadium on Saturday evening, when underdogs Borussia Dortmund and seasoned Champions League pros Real Madrid square off in a 2023-24 final of titanic proportions. For the Bundesliga powerhouses donning black and yellow, victory would end 27 years of hurt and seal Champions League title number two, while Los Blancos endeavour to etch their name onto the European Champion Clubs' Cup for the 15th time. Edin Terzic's men were triumphant against Paris Saint-Germain in the final four to book their tickets to Wembley, while Carlo Ancelotti's troops denied their upcoming foes an all-German final against Bayern Munich thanks to a gripping second-leg turnaround. Exorcising former Champions League demons under the Wembley arch is the goal for Saturday's unfancied unit Borussia Dortmund, 11 years on from helplessly witnessing Arjen Robben's scuffed shot trickle over the line for Bayern Munich in a 2012-13 Der Klassiker final in the English capital. Departing club icon Marco Reus and rejuvenated centre-back Mats Hummels may be the only surviving members from that silver medal-winning troupe - the latter's CV also includes an Allianz Arena stint sandwiched in between - but none of Terzic's first-time finalists will require a sermon on the significance of June 1. Coming up trumps in the tantalising Group of Death with AC Milan, Paris Saint-Germain and Newcastle United was a sign of things to come for Borussia Dortmund, who sent PSV Eindhoven packing without breaking too much of a sweat before a minor blip in the first leg of their quarter-final versus Atletico Madrid. Suffering their sole defeat of the 2023-24 tournament at the Wanda Metropolitano did not hinder Dortmund's bid for European glory, though, as a phenomenal second-leg turnaround preceded a pair of exceptional 1-0 successes over perpetual bridesmaids PSG, shut out at both the Signal Iduna Park and Parc des Princes in early May. Thanks to their own defensive discipline and the never-ending wastefulness of the Ligue 1 champions, BVB condemned PSG to another year of Champions League torture as the old-but-gold Hummels nodded in the solitary second-leg strike, thereby booking Dortmund a date with Champions League destiny for just the third time ever. One-time European Cup champions back in the 1996-97 term, where Ottmar Hitzfeld masterminded a 3-1 triumph over Juventus in Munich, Dortmund have not been present in the showpiece event since falling to Bayern's supremacy in London over a decade ago, and Real's semi-final exploits means that a shot at Bavarian revenge did not materialise. Even as Bayern lost their iron-clad grip on the Bundesliga title, Terzic's men and the rest of the division were powerless to quell the Bayer Leverkusen juggernaut, and despite demolishing SV Darmstadt 98 4-0 in their closing contest, Dortmund could only labour to a fifth-placed finish. However, thanks to Germany's superior UEFA coefficient over all other nations barring Italy, BVB will dine at Europe's top table next year regardless of the result of Saturday's final, which they enter also seeking four straight Champions League victories at any stage for the first time in nearly 10 years. Dortmund's overall trophy drought has not been as agonisingly long as their 27-year wait for Champions League title number two - they prevailed in the 2020-21 DFB-Pokal - but a Champions League winners' medal would shine much brighter around the neck of the Signal Iduna Park's favourite son Reus before he clears out his Dortmund locker.