The last time Germany played at the Westfalenstadion was their defeat by Italy in the 2006 World Cup semi-final but they had never lost at the venue prior to that.

"Honestly, it is always special to play in Dortmund," Ballack revealed ahead of their Group Four World Cup qualifier.

"It is one of the best stadia in Germany and has an excellent atmosphere.

"The fans in Dortmund are special and they are capable of getting a few percent more out of us and I hope that we can take advantage of the fans to obtain a good result.

"Dortmund really is like a home game for us."

Having stumbled to a 3-3 draw in Finland last time out, Joachim Low's side will be keen to get back into top gear in front of their home fans against Russia.

Guus Hiddink's men have only played one game so far, a 2-1 win over Wales, but their hopes have been hit by injuries to Tottenham striker Roman Pavlyuchenko and Lokomotiv Moscow midfielder Dmitri Torbinsky.

There is also a question mark over midfielder Diniar Bilyaletdinov who suffered a recurrence of a leg injury and sat out of training on Thursday.

That has paved the way for Hiddink to hand a possible debut to CSKA Moscow youngster Alan Dzagoev who has impressed with his club in recent months and who is one of four uncapped players in the squad.

"I am very happy with Dzagoev," Hiddink told Sport Express. "His recent work has been excellent. He's finding his rhythm and in terms of the team structure he is not looking bad at all."

Wales captain Craig Bellamy is set to start his first competitive international for a year when his side host minnows Liechtenstein in Cardiff.

Injuries have restricted the 29-year-old West Ham striker's role for the national team in the past 12 months, but now fully fit he believes he can help Wales to their first World Cup finals since 1958 before he retires.

"I still believe I can play in a major finals. And there is not much time left," he said.

"I had one good crack at it under Mark Hughes when we lost a Euro 2004 play-off against Russia. We had started so well but could not maintain the form.

"That was my closest. We have a lot of young players in the squad now who are capable of qualifying for a finals."

Wales have three points from two games after wining their opener against Azerbaijan, before conceding a lead in a 2-1 away defeat to Russia.

Liechtenstein earned a point last time out following a goalless draw at Azerbaijan and midfielder Franz Burgmeier believes they can add to their points tally in Cardiff.

"We have to keep them out long enough to strike fear into their team and to silence the crowd," Burgmeier said.

"The game starts 0-0 and we hope not to concede any goals and keep it that way. We have to keep them out, make them frightened and wait for the crowd to become nervous. That is our target."

The other game in Group Four sees Finland welcome Azerbaijan to the Olympiastadion with both teams looking for their first win of the campaign.