Stuttgart will set up in their expected 4-2-3-1, with Undav leading the line and the creative burden falling on the half-spaces. Hoeneß wants his full-backs high and his double pivot to control the rhythm, but with Zagadou and Jaquez missing, the back four lacks recovery pace. That is a problem when you are facing Guirassy — a striker who lives on the shoulder of the last man — and Nwaneri, who drifts inside to overload the centre-backs.

Dortmund's 3-4-2-1 is built to exploit exactly that. Kovac will ask Ryerson and Svensson to pin Stuttgart's full-backs deep, while Bellingham and Nmecha win the second balls in midfield. The two tens, Nwaneri and Silva, will target the channel between Stuttgart's right-back and the covering centre-back. If Stuttgart's press is not perfectly synchronised, Dortmund will knife through the lines with two passes.

The set-piece battle also leans Dortmund's way. Schlotterbeck and Anton are aerial monsters, and Stuttgart's makeshift defence has conceded from dead balls in recent games. Hoeneß will need Bredlow to be commanding in a way he has not always been. The game state matters too: if Stuttgart chase an early goal and leave gaps, Dortmund's counter is lethal. If Stuttgart sit deep, Dortmund have the patience and the quality from wide areas to break a low block.