Our match with Juventus will be tight, says Reus

MARCO Reus believes Borussia Dortmund’s Champions League clash with Juventus is a 50-50 tie with no clear favourite. 

  He believes both sides are evenly matched and predicts the contest will be decided by the finest of margins over the two legs

  While Dortmund have struggled domestically and sit 12th in the Bundesliga, they have impressed in Europe again after reaching the final and quarter-finals of the competition in each of the last two seasons.

  BVB finished top of Group D ahead of second placed Arsenal, while Juve qualified for the knockout stages having sealed the runners-up spot in Group A behind Atletico Madrid.

  Reus, who recently signed a new contract with the club until 2019, is expecting the tightest of contests but has drawn confidence from their efforts in Europe prior to Christmas.

  “Juventus are really a strong team,” he told Kicker. “The chances of qualifying I think are about 50/50. We are proud enough to say that we can eliminate them if we deliver a top performance. On the top-level it is brutally difficult, though.

  “We have seen in the first round that we are different in the Champions League than in the Bundesliga. We have beaten Arsenal and Galatasaray in Istanbul. The top level has its own laws. It is certainly very interesting. For every player in the world the motivation is particularly high.”

  The 25-year-old is yet to win a major trophy at Dortmund since joining the club from Borussia Monchengladbach in 2012, with just two DFL-Supercup medals to his name, but he is targeting league and European success in the years ahead.

 “Winning the league is still a major goal. I want to achieve it at least once more,” he said. “I will give everything to achieve that and I have a large and strong feeling that it will happen eventually.

  “We have already seen how beautiful it is to be in a Champions League final. And we are still hungry to win the Champions League sometime.”