Niko Kovac does not want his Borussia Dortmund team to sit back at 2-0 up in their Champions League play-off tie against Atalanta, saying they must play at 100% to advance.

First-half goals from Serhou Guirassy and Maximilian Beier handed Dortmund a 2-0 win over their Serie A foes in Germany last week, as they put one foot in the round of 16.

Before this season, there had been 126 occasions of a team winning the first leg of a Champions League knockout tie by two or more goals – only 15 have been eliminated, most recently Barcelona by Liverpool in the 2018-19 semi-finals (4-3 on aggregate).

Dortmund have also progressed from seven of their nine Champions League knockout ties when winning the first leg overall.

Both times they were eliminated, by Pais Saint-Germain in 2019-20 and Chelsea in 2022-23, they only won the first leg by one goal.

But Kovac is keen to avoid any complacency in Bergamo on Wednesday, particularly as his team have only won one of their last five away Champions League games, conceding four goals in three of those matches. 

"We're definitely not coming here to manage the game and the result. That won't get us anywhere," Kovac said at Tuesday's pre-match press conference. 

"We want to try to impose our own game. If we can score a goal, then we'll have a lot more confidence. 

"The first leg was a good result, but nothing more. That's why we'll clearly focus on our game. 

"We have to be sharp and we have to be good, and if we want to advance to the next round, we need to push ourselves to the limit. And the limit is always 100%."

This is the first time Atalanta have ever faced a first-leg deficit of more than one goal in a major European tie, and they have lost each of their last four such ties when losing the first leg by any scoreline.

But their head coach, Raffaele Palladino refuses to give up hope, telling Sky Sport Italia: "It's certainly a difficult mission, we know that, but we must give it our best. 

"It will be tough, but we'll try with everything we've got, with great enthusiasm and awareness of our capabilities. 

"We must play with quality, with our style of football, and have faith in ourselves. I want to see us push from the first minute to the last.

"It is a dream to get through to the round of 16, but dreams can come true, so we've got to give it our best."