Jan has his ‘Wits’ about him over Dortmund

Jan Vertonghen believes we’ll have to deal with a Borussia Dortmund side “full of confidence” at Wembley on Wednesday night.

The German giants arrive in London for the first leg of our Champions League round of 16 tie five points clear at the top of the Bundesliga and with only three defeats to their name in all competitions this term, one of which was on penalties to Werder Bremen in the German Cup last week.

They might have drawn their last two league games but prior to that, they’d won nine of their last 10 top-flight matches.

Jan, who revealed he’s been speaking to Belgian international colleague Axel Witsel about Dortmund following the midfielder’s move there last summer, has been impressed by our opponents’ form, but is backing us to secure what would, remarkably, be our first home win in the knockout stages of the Champions League.

“Whenever there are players there that you know, you try to follow them a bit more so obviously Axel Witsel transferred there over the summer and you follow your (international) team-mates,” explained the defender. “I’ve been speaking about German football with some of the guys and with Axel when we’re in the national team – they’re having a great season, playing some nice, attacking football and they’re doing very well at the top of the league.
The atmosphere has crackled at Wembley whenever we’ve hosted Champions League football there in recent seasons and Jan hopes more of the same will benefit our cause this week.

“Home advantage is definitely something big in the knockout phase of the Champions League,” he said. “We had some great games last season with the home games in the Champions League and it gives you a great lift. We play the first leg at home now so we have everyone behind us and it might give us an extra boost.

“It definitely helps when the stadium is full and rocking and I hope we will see that tomorrow. It’s a great fixture for everyone in football and it’s what we all became football players for.”