Niko Kovac warned Borussia Dortmund of the threat posed by Villarreal but outlined their "clear mission to win".

Dortmund return to the Champions League having lost 4-1 to Manchester City in their last outing in the competition, ending a three-match unbeaten run to start the competition.

Since that loss, the Black and Yellow have drawn both of their Bundesliga matches against Hamburg and Stuttgart, having slipped away from leaders Bayern Munich.

They are still in the play-off places for the Champions League, sitting 14th and faring better than Villarreal, who are 32nd, having failed to win any of their first four matches (D1 L3).

Based on Opta's expected points data, however, they are the team with the biggest underperformance (-19) between their actual position (32nd) and expected position (13th).

However, while Marcelino's side have struggled in UEFA's premier competition, they are third in LaLiga, only three points behind Real Madrid, and come into this match on the back of consecutive wins.

"The fact that they are there [third in LaLiga] means that they are performing really well," said Kovac.

"They haven't achieved what they could have in the Champions League. That doesn't make things any easier for us; they will give everything to get through to the next stage.

"Their players are technically very skilled, very fast and have a very good transition game.

"We want to win, that is our clear mission, our clear goal. To do that, we need a strong performance."

The two sides have never met in a competitive match before, but Dortmund have played 42 games against Spanish sides and faced eight different opponents in major European competition (W14 D11 L17).

And since the start of 2022-23, Dortmund have only lost one of their 18 home matches in the Champions League (W11 D6): a 3-2 loss to Barcelona in December 2024.

Kovac will be without Niklas Sule and Maximilian Beier through injury on Tuesday, but Ramy Bensebaini has returned to training after a back problem.

Emre Can, meanwhile, is still hoping to improve after his own long lay-off, but said: "If the coach picks me, I'll be 100% ready."