There isn't much joy to be taken from last weekend's Der Klassiker for Borussia Dortmund. The 4-2 defeat to Bayern Munich – 3-2 until Robert Lewandowski affirmed his status as the best forward in the world by completing a hat-trick in the 90th minute – is a genuine heartbreaker for Dortmund. However, if there is one glimmer of hope in the darkness, it's in the form of Erling Haaland.

Those two goals to the good were scored by him and both showed that he is the most exciting and dynamic footballer in the world today. Rival for this, Kylian Mbappe of Paris Saint-Germain is a fast, flashy striker; Haaland is Cruyff plus ultra. He can do it all.

Sevilla will know that well. In the first leg of their UEFA Champions League Round of 16 game two weeks ago, Haaland scored two and provided the assist for the other and, even when forward passes failed to link or shots went wide, Haaland was still involved.

What should worry Dortmund is that, without him, the odds swing away from their favor. Defenders Axel Witsel and Marcel Schmelzer as well as Jason Sancho are unavailable for this leg at Signal Iduna Park in Germany due to injury and, also, as seen in their scoring records, if you remove Haaland, Dortmund's ability to win games drops dramatically. The Norwegian has 19 in all competitions, which works out as one per appearance, and in second place is Sancho with 6 in 21.

There were concerns that he wouldn't play in this game due to a minor injury he sustained in the weekend's game against Bayern but he confirmed today on social media that he was back training, ready for this clash.

Less prepared are their opponents, Sevilla. Since their first leg loss to Dortmund, the Spanish side have played four games and lost three of them. Losing to Bayern in the Bundesliga is one thing, particularly now when they are the team to beat in Europe, but losing to relegation contenders Elche – their 2-1 win over Sevilla got them out of The Drop – and to a flagging Barcelona 2-0 in the league and 3-0 in the Copa Del Rey days later shows they are in a run of appalling form.

Julien Lopetegui's side will need to focus to get anything out of this tie, but on the back foot in all ways, they'll need to play their best from the very start and, more importantly, neutralize Haaland – if that's even possible.