Alonso ahead of #BVBB04: 'Looking forward to this magnificent opening'

"Obviously the winter break did us good, especially after so many midweek fixtures," stressed Alonso at Thursday's press conference. "But since the start of training on 2 January, we've been giving it everything every day to achieve our goals. Now we're looking forward to this magnificent opening and going into it with great motivation." When asked about the absence of a winter training camp this year, the Spaniard said: "We have the best facilities here. And the temperatures don't matter - at the end of the day we're also playing here in Germany tomorrow."

strongest home team in the league

Borussia Dortmund have collected more points at home than any other side in the Bundesliga this season. Nuri Sahin's team have registered six wins and two draws and are still unbeaten at Signal Iduna Park in the league. "It was very close in the Champions League against Barcelona (2-3), too. We'll need our best performance, with and without the ball" added Alonso, who's looking forward to the reunion with Sahin, a former team-mate from Real Madrid in the 2011/12 season. "I'm looking forward to seeing Nuri again. I wish him only the best."

decision to be made on xhaka

On Granit Xhaka, who left the training pitch early on Tuesday with an ankle problem, Alonso stated: "It remains to be seen. He joined in with parts of training today. Tomorrow we have an activation session, a little training. We'll see."

Victor Boniface, Amine Adli and Jeanuel Belocian will definitely be absent, but Jonas Hofmann is fit again.

Bayer 04 are set to be cheered on by 8,000 away fans on Friday evening.