Dortmund's Jürgen Klopp and Marco Reus have said they are a very unpleasant team to play against. But how will they cope with not being the underdogs against Málaga?

All this week the talk in Dortmund has been about "unpleasantness". Not the unpleasantness about how cold the spring has been in Germany or the unpleasantness of five tonnes of Nutella being stolen by unscrupulous thieves in Niederaula.

No, all the talk was of how painful it is to play against Borussia Dortmund. "We are very unpleasant to play against," said the manager, Jürgen Klopp, on Monday and his sentiments were echoed by Marco Reus, who used the same word, unangenehm, when describing why he believes the German side will beat Málaga on Tuesday night and reach the Champions League semi-finals for the first time since 1998.

"We play attractive and attack-minded football and we are therefore very unpleasant to play against," the forward told Die Welt. "We play high up on the pitch. We start quick counterattacks but still manage to stay compact and work consistently towards the ball. And it is with this philosophy that we have not lost a single game in the Champions League season. That says a lot and it is something we are proud of."

Unpleasant to play against, but a joy to watch. During last week's 0-0 draw in Málaga, Dortmund dominated the game and would have won handsomely had Robert Lewandowski and Mario Götze taken their chances. The good news for Málaga before Tuesday's return at Westfalenstadion is that a score draw will be enough to take the club into the last four. The bad news is that Dortmund have played four Champions League games at home this season and won all four (against Ajax, Real Madrid, Manchester City and Shakhtar Donetsk).

What may prove decisive, however, is that the visitors will be without their centre-back Weligton and their holding midfielder Manuel Iturra with the battle likely to be won in midfield. Reus, when asked which of the remaining eight Champions League teams have the best midfield, asked jokingly "what, after us?", forcing the interviewer to admit "no, we were thinking after Barcelona …" but he has a point.

Ilkay Gündogan has been superb this season and is attracting interest from Real Madrid. Add to that Reus, Götze, Nuri Sahin, Sven Bender, Sebastian Kehl and Jakub Blaszczykowski and it is clear that Klopp has an abundance of options in midfield.

It is difficult to see how Málaga will be able to cope with the pressure Dortmund normally put on opponents when playing at home and, if more motivation was needed, the players have negotiated a combined bonus of €2m (£1.7m).

Klopp has managed to create a brilliant team spirit at the Westfalenstadion and it is that, more than anything, that should give Dortmund the edge on Tuesday night. Gündogan, for one, said last week that he wants to extend his contract with Dortmund "after everything they have done to me" and Reus said in the interview with Die Welt that he does not choose to be Borussia Dortmund on the PlayStation because "he doesn't want to leave any of his team-mates out of the team."

Málaga, it should be said, are also a hard-working team with an extraordinary team spirit, built and nurtured by Manuel Pellegrini. The Málaga players will do everything in their powers to make sure Pellegrini gets into the Champions League semi-finals, even more so after the manager lost his father at the weekend but did not tell the players before the game against Real Sociedad.

The Málaga defender Martín Demichelis said: "He will be with us on Tuesday and we will try everything to advance for him. We would like to win this one for him. First our coach did not tell us about his father passing away, that shows his greatness."

Klopp also enjoys total dedication from his players and one German paper asked this week "can Jürgen Klopp get any more popular?" Of course he can, if he does the unthinkable and wins the whole Champions League with Dortmund.

First, though, there is Málaga. Earlier this season, Klopp said that he preferred to be the underdog. Well, he is no longer the underdog. In fact, on Tuesday night he will be the overriding favourite – and it will be interesting to see how he and his players cope.