With Sporting needing a minor miracle to progress, the absence of injury-stricken star striker Viktor Gyokeres was far from ideal.
In the other dugout, Niko Kovac has lost both of his Bundesliga games since taking over and could do with a morale-boosting win despite his side having done the bulk of the hard work in Lisbon last week.
The complexion of the tie dictated the slow pace of play early on and it took almost half an hour for either keeper to be tested, with Marcel Sabitzer - still searching for his first goal of the season - stinging the palms of Rui Silva.
After netting his first BVB goal in the first leg, Pascal Gross came close to another, stretching to meet Karim Adeyemi’s clever ball that was just out of reach.
Serhou Guirassy was next to try his luck as the hosts edged a rather uneventful first half, however, Silva was equal to his effort despite a knick off of Eduardo Quaresma on the way through.
Having not registered a single shot on goal in the first half, Sporting were putting up a fairly meek effort as their European journey slipped away.
Their goalkeeper was certainly keeping up the good fight as Silva made another couple of flying saves early in the second half from Adeyemi and Daniel Svensson.
The Real Betis loanee soon went from hero to zero when he felled Adeyemi in the box, yet he atoned for that error by diving low to his right, brilliantly denying Guirassy from the spot.
Half-time substitute Alexandre Brito had Gregor Kobel sweating with a low effort from range just after the hour mark but this was not the signal of a Sporting onslaught.
In fact, the hosts should have taken the lead 10 minutes later as two subs of their own combined. Maximilian Beier played in Giovanni Reyna with a delightful pass but the American international struck the post where perhaps he should have done better.
The ball was in the back of the visitors’ net on 72 minutes when Emre Can nodded home Julian Ryerson’s free-kick but the offside flag denied the Dortmund captain.
That would prove to be the last of the action as Kovac continued his wait for a first victory at the Westfalenstadion in his managerial career.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Rui Silva (Sporting)