Pep Guardiola revealed in his pre-match press conference that the defender was available for selection once again after picking up a minor injury in our 1-1 draw with Aston Villa.
Stones missed last week’s victory in Seville as a result, but returns to the fold this evening as the City boss makes four changes.
The centre-half lines up at right-back, replacing Sergio Gomez while swapping flanks with Joao Cancelo.
Manuel Akanji - facing his former club for the first time - joins Nathan Ake at centre-half, with Ruben Dias dropping to the bench.
Elsewhere, Bernardo Silva makes way for captain Ilkay Gundogan while at the sharp end, Riyad Mahrez comes in for Phil Foden.
Defensive duo Kyle Walker and Aymeric Laporte remain unavailable due to injury.
City XI: Ederson, Stones, Akanji, Ake, Cancelo, Rodrigo, Gundogan (C), De Bruyne, Grealish, Haaland, Mahrez
Subs: Ortega Moreno, Carson, Dias, Phillips, Alvarez, Bernardo, Gomez, Foden, Palmer, Lewis, Wilson Esbrand
Dortmund XI: Meyer, Meunier, Sule, Hummels, Gueirrero, Ozcan, Can, Bellingham, Reus, Modeste, Reyna
Subs: Adeyemi, Brandt, Coulibaly, Hazard, Malen, Moukoko, Passlack, Rothe, Schlotterbeck, Unbehaun, Wolf
Tactics
City will start in our familiar 4-3-3 formation, with Stones and Cancelo both given licence to get forward on either flank.
Rodrigo will operate as the midfield anchor, with Gundogan and Kevin De Bruyne completing the midfield three.
With Erling Haaland lining up against his former club through the middle, Jack Grealish and Riyad Mahrez will start on either flank
Home is where the heart is
The Etihad Stadium has been a happy hunting ground for Pep Guardiola‘s men in the Champions League of late.
City are unbeaten in our last 20 home matches in the competition, winning 18 and drawing two.
In that time, we have beaten the likes of European heavyweights Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid and tonight’s opponents, to name just a few.
Should we continue that streak tonight, then it will equal the longest run without defeat by an English side in UEFA Champions League history.
The current record is held by Chelsea, who went 21 matches unbeaten on home soil between September 2006 and December 2009.
Match Stats
Head-to-head
This will be the fifth meeting between Manchester City and Borussia Dortmund in all competitions, with each contest taking place in the UEFA Champions League – City are unbeaten in our last two encounters with Dortmund at the Etihad (W1 D1).
Borussia Dortmund are winless in eight matches in all competitions against English teams (D1 L7), losing each of the last seven in a row. Their last victory against an English side came against Spurs in the UEFA Europa League in March 2016.
This will be Man City’s 30th match against German opposition in all European competition – facing sides from Germany more times than they have against any other nation. Indeed, City have won 18 times in the process (D3 L8).
City lost our last match against a team from Germany (2-1 at RB Leipzig) and haven’t lost consecutive such games since December 2012/October 2013, losing to Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich respectively.
Manchester City
City have kept a clean sheet in five of our last seven matches in the UEFA Champions League, conceding three times on two different occasions to Real Madrid in this run in the other games.
We have lost just two of our last 24 group stage matches in the UEFA Champions League, with those two defeats coming in the last six outings at this stage (W18 D4).
City have won 57 of our 103 UEFA Champions League matches (55.3%) – only three teams have a higher win rate in the history of the competition (Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich).
Pep Guardiola‘s men have scored in a higher share of our games in the UEFA Champions League than any other English side (83% - 86 of 103).
Erling Haaland has scored 25 goals in 20 UEFA Champions League appearances, the most by any player in their first 20 games in the competition. He netted 15 in 13 games with Borussia Dortmund and could become just the second player to score a Champions League goal both for and against the German side, after Ciro Immobile.
Borussia Dortmund
Dortmund have won their last two games in the UEFA Champions League, last winning three in a row in November 2020, which is also when they last recorded three consecutive clean sheets in the competition.
Tonight’s opponents have lost three of their last four away games in the UEFA Champions League, winning the other 2-1 at Besiktas. The first defeat in this run came at City in April 2021 (1-2).
The German outfit have kept just one clean sheet in their last 11 away games in the UEFA Champions League, conceding two or more goals on eight occasions during this run.
19-year-old Jude Bellingham has scored three UEFA Champions League goals for Borussia Dortmund, the joint-most of any English teenager in the competition (level with Wayne Rooney, Theo Walcott, Jadon Sancho and Phil Foden).
