News Analysis: Dortmund: How to get away with a black eye

2014/2015 could well be a "lost" season for Borussia Dortmund, as the 2012 German champion is languishing in the middle of the Bundesliga table.

Surrounded by nameless teams, they are without a realistic chance of winning the championship shield.

To qualify for Europe a "wonder" is needed. It might sound strange for a team that has only recently managed to escape the drop zone: The only chance to get away with a black eye is to be successful in the Champions League and the German Cup would only be small consolation.

Therefore Borussia Dortmund is determined to battle hard to come away with some kind of reward before the season is over. They however have a serious problem. The big question ahead of the second leg against Juventus, the Italian champions, (1-2 in the first leg) this Wednesday evening is nothing less than whether they have enough energy to win or not?

After coach Juergen Klopp's side are no longer in danger of being relegated - they are now 10th in the league table - the club, team and coach are left with doubts about their current identity as a football team. Twice Dortmund seemed to be somehow strangely paralyzed in two goalless draws and this after returning to full strength.

Now Dortmund seems to be lost in an identity crisis as the team have become aware that the way back is far from being a piece of cake. Maybe it will be too much of an effort for a squad without a future perspective as General Manager Michael Zorc and Coach Juergen Klopp will be looking to restructure the squad and try to reverse the mistakes they made when putting together the present squad.

To face a team like that sounds like an easy task for the Italian Serie A top dogs, but ironically Juve will face Dortmund asking the same questions as the Italians just do not know what awaits them in Dortmund.

Will it be enough to secure their own goal and wait for Dortmund to panic with a narrow 2-1 lead achieved in the first match? Or are the Germans able to produce a one-hit-wonder after all? Meaning: Are 80,000 supporters and the unique atmosphere of a thrilling Champions League night going to be enough to change things as Dortmund is a team without a convincing message at present? One moment they have problems in defense and the next when they are going forward - you never know what quite to expect from Dortmund.

Dortmund desperately needs Nuri Sahin to pull the strings in midfield - as he did in the first leg. But the midfielder will probably be unable to play because of injury problems. Sahin is currently is the only one capable of assisting Ilkay Guendogan in Borussia's midfield as the team lately has not managed to adequately support its powerful strikers Marco Reus and Pierre-Emilie Aubameyang who have scored 10 of their last 16 goals. The question in that case is: What happens when Reus and Aubameyang are shut out of the game?

Midfielders Shinji Kagawa and Hendrik Mkhitaryan are far off being in top form. The problem in the spearhead has unfortunately not been solved as Adrian Ramos and Italian Ciro Immobile have not been compensate for the loss of Robert Lewandowski who was transferred to Bayern Munich before the season started.

"We fail to put away too many chances and we have to be much more precise with our final passing," said Reus.

As Klopp expects Juventus to be defensively-minded, he knows that his team will have to be running on all cylinders if they are to have a chance of breaching the Italian back line.

"We don't expect them to attack us in our six-yard-box," assumes the BVB coach, "It's up to us to take the game to them as Juve has time to sit back park the bus - until that is we manage to go 1-0 up."

A 1-0 win would suffice for Dortmund to reach the quarterfinals which could give the club an emotional boost despite the fact that Borussia has no realistic chance of winning this season's Champions League which will culminate in the final in Berlin, Germany's capital in May.

A draw would equate to a victory for the Italians. So Dortmund knows exactly what is needed for a happy end on Wednesday evening. As mentioned: The only question is, will the team come up with convincing ideas and stamp their authority on Juventus. The game is Dortmund's last chance to save what has been a "lost" season so far. Enditem