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Tottenham versus Borussia Dortmund: 5 most important players

By Rucker Haringey

DORTMUND, GERMANY - MARCH 05: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang of Dortmund walks out of the bus prior to the Bundesliga match between Borussia Dortmund and FC Bayern Muenchen at Signal Iduna Park on March 5, 2016 in Dortmund, Germany. (Photo by Christof Koepsel/Getty Images For MAN)
DORTMUND, GERMANY - MARCH 05: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang of Dortmund walks out of the bus prior to the Bundesliga match between Borussia Dortmund and FC Bayern Muenchen at Signal Iduna Park on March 5, 2016 in Dortmund, Germany. (Photo by Christof Koepsel/Getty Images For MAN) /
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DORTMUND, GERMANY – MARCH 05: Mats Hummels of Borussia Dortmund looks on during the Bundesliga match between Borussia Dortmund and FC Bayern Muenchen at Signal Iduna Park on March 5, 2016 in Dortmund, Germany. (Photo by Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Bongarts/Getty Images)
DORTMUND, GERMANY – MARCH 05: Mats Hummels of Borussia Dortmund looks on during the Bundesliga match between Borussia Dortmund and FC Bayern Muenchen at Signal Iduna Park on March 5, 2016 in Dortmund, Germany. (Photo by Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Bongarts/Getty Images) /

3. Mats Hummels

Mats Hummels is Dortmund’s best pure defender and he’ll be the key to keeping Tottenham off the score sheet. He’ll match up frequently with Spurs forward Harry Kane and that match-up will be huge in determining the match’s winner.

Very simply, Hummels is a world-class defender who is in the prime of his career. He’s playing his best football at the age of 27 and has a Whoscored.com player rating of 7.42 in 23 Bundesliga matches for the club. He’s also the club’s consistent player as demonstrated by his Europa League Whoscored.com rating which is also 7.42. He is not only an excellent player, he’s also amazingly consistent.

Dortmund fans will hope that Hummels’ ball distribution is more of a factor in this match than his defending. The German side will expect to have more of the ball, which means that Hummels’ main defensive duty will be guarding against a Tottenham counter-attack.

Hummels might not have a ton to do on the night defensively, but he’ll definitely have a few moments where he will need to come up big for his side. Those instances where he goes on-on-one with a Tottenham attacker on the counter could decide the match.

Next: 2. Mousa Dembele

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