Borussia Dortmund will continue their quest for Bundesliga supremacy on Saturday when Borussia Monchengladbach comes to Signal Iduna Park, fresh off a 6-0 hammering of Wolfsburg.
BVB will be aware of the threat provided by Gladbach, who have been incredibly unpredictable throughout this season, as they are one point behind table topping Bayern Munich.
Match Preview
The previous round saw little drama as both Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund won to keep the standings where they are for the time being in the wild 2022/23 Bundesliga title battle. By kickoff, Dortmund’s head coach Edin Terzi will know if they have a chance to regain the lead in this match because Bayern will have just finished playing their Revierderby opponents Schalke.
Dortmund is conscious that they must earn the most points possible in order to stay in the race, regardless of what happens at the Allianz. Fortunately for them, Die Schwarzgelben have scored 11 consecutive goals here without receiving a response as part of their longest home winning streak in competition since way back in 1994 (W10), and that’s not even counting their current nine games winning streak against Borussia Mönchengladbach at home.
If Daniel Farke’s Foals’ mediocre performance over the previous ten rounds is any indication (W2, D4, L4), they don’t seem likely to reverse their bad form tonight. Even though they won their most recent match 2-0 against Bochum, a team from the Ruhr, their season has already ended and they have little hope of making the playoffs or avoiding relegation.
Gladbach’s hopes are further hampered by the fact that they have yet to win consecutive league games this season. The visitors’ victories over the top three teams at home have had some effect on the title race, but the Foals have yet to triumph away from home against a team rated 13th or higher at the end of the previous round (D5, L5).
Donyell Malen of Dortmund is trying to make it six straight home league scoring appearances after scoring seven goals in his last seven league games. Regarding Gladbach, Jonas Hofmann’s pivotal first half goal against Bochum last weekend (G10, A8) set a new mark for goal contributions in a Bundesliga season.
Team News
This weekend, Borussia Dortmund will be missing the injured quintet of Thomas Meunier (muscle), Mateu Morey Bauza (knee), Julien Duranville, and Jamie Bynoe-Gittens (shoulder).
Edin Terzic won’t want to alter the successful formula, thus Emre Can and Julian Brandt are anticipated to join Jude Bellingham in midfield, with Donyell Malen, Sebastien Haller, and Karim Adeyemi staying in attack.
The BVB defense will likely consist of Marius Wolf, Niklas Sule, Mats Hummels, and Julian Ryerson, with goalkeeper Gregor Kobel remaining in the back as the final line of defense.
Borussia Monchengladbach also has two injured players out of the lineup right now, Yvandro Borges Sanches (ankle) and Marcus Thuram (muscle).
With two goals and 13 assists thus far this season, Alassane Plea will continue to play at the front of the line for the visitors. Florian Neuhaus and Nathan Ngoumou are anticipated to play on the wings.
With Manu Kone perhaps joining Julian Weigl in the Gladbach engine room on Saturday, former Dortmund midfielder Julian Weigl will undoubtedly be motivated to humiliate his old team.
Possible starting lineup for Borussia Dortmund
Kobel, Wolf, Sule, Hummels, Ryerson, Bellingham, Can, Brandt, Malen, Haller and Adeyemi.
Possible starting lineup for Borussia Monchengladbach
Omlin, Lainer, Friedrich, Elvedi, Bensebaini, Weigl, Kone, Neuhaus, Hofmann, Ngoumou and Plea.
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We predict: Borussia Dortmund 4-1 Borussia Monchengladbach
All indications lead to another resounding BVB victory at Signal Iduna Park when you combine Dortmund’s impressive home record with Gladbach’s terrible road performance.
We expect Dortmund to defeat the Foals with a score of many goals, given that Terzic’s team has been scoring goals at will at home.