Dortmund eases past Sporting Lisbon as Champions League focus turns to Real Madrid and Man City

DORTMUND, Germany (news agencies) — Borussia Dortmund’s routine elimination of Sporting Lisbon was a tame warmup for the Real Madrid-Manchester City showdown in the Champions League playoffs round Wednesday.

Dortmund brought a 3-0 lead into the second leg at home and was barely stretched in a 0-0 draw with Sporting, whose Champions League campaign imploded after coach Ruben Amorim left for Manchester United in November.

The most anticipated game Wednesday is at Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, where defending champion Madrid starts with a 3-2 lead earned in Manchester last week.

Also in the knockout playoffs, Paris Saint-Germain starts 3-0 up at home to Brest and Juventus takes a 2-1 lead to PSV Eindhoven.

Sporting was second in the 36-team standings under Amorim but has since failed to win any of six Champions League games under two different coaches.

Dortmund also fired a coach midseason and newly hired Niko Kovač now has two wins on the European stage to offset two straight losses in the German league.

The beaten finalist last season, Dortmund will next face either Lille or Aston Villa after the round of 16 pairings are made Friday at UEFA headquarters in Switzerland.

It was an easy passage despite Serhou Guirassy having a 59th-minute penalty saved by Sporting goalkeeper Rui Silva.

Still, Sporting’s prospects to be in the Champions League next season look better than Dortmund’s.

Portugal’s champion advances direct to the next league phase and Sporting currently is top, two points clear of Benfica. Dortmund is 11th in the Bundesliga and could need to win this Champions League title to earn a place in the next edition.

The round of 16 bracket is in a new, tennis-like seeded bracket for the knockout stage in the expanded competition format. As the 10th-place team in the final league standings, Dortmund must be drawn against either the No. 7 or 8 seed, Lille or Villa.

Madrid, the No. 11 seed, and Man City already know their next opponent will be Atletico Madrid or Bayer Leverkusen, who placed fifth and sixth.

The top eight in the standings — Liverpool, Barcelona, Arsenal, Inter Milan, Atletico, Leverkusen, Lille, Aston Villa — skipped the playoffs round and are seeded in the round of 16 draw. They host second-leg games on March 11-12.

Dortmund joins Bayern Munich, Benfica, Club Brugge and Feyenoord which all advanced Tuesday to be among the unseeded teams that will host the first legs on March 4-5.

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