All about the next game: Dortmund at home | OneFootball

After the guest appearance against Cham­pi­ons League win­ners Real Madrid, Cham­pi­ons League fina­list Borus­sia Dort­mund is coming to visit. Along with them are three fami­li­ar faces, one of whom may not recei­ve a warm wel­co­me.

Despi­te the 1–3 defeat at the Ber­nabeu, there’s alre­a­dy a cer­tain level of eupho­ria at VfB and among its fans. First win in the league, a come­back on the big­gest Euro­pean stage, and a strong show­ing against defen­ding cham­pi­ons Real Madrid. The return of the French cen­tral defen­der duo Rou­ault and Zag­adou also gives extra momen­tum to hopes of a suc­cessful sea­son. But with BVB coming — I know, I said some­thing simi­lar last week — this is the toug­hest chall­enge of the Bun­des­li­ga sea­son so far. Not only are we facing a top Euro­pean-level oppo­nent, but it will also be an emo­tio­nal game.

On one hand, record goal-scorer Ser­hou Gui­ras­sy is retur­ning to the Neckar, and he’ll likely be wel­co­med with thanks and flowers. On the other hand, for­mer cap­tain Wal­de­mar Anton is also retur­ning to Mer­ce­des­stra­ße. The lat­ter alre­a­dy got a tas­te of what to expect during the Euro­pean Cham­pi­on­ship match in Stutt­gart: boos and whist­les at every ball touch. The­re are Dort­mund fans who, of cour­se, don’t under­stand why VfB fans hold such a grudge against Anton. After all, it’s not the first time a play­er has used VfB as a spring­board, right? Iro­ni­cal­ly, it’s pro­ba­b­ly the same Dort­mund fans who made sure Mario Göt­ze had to warm up in the play­ers’ tun­nel in 2013/2014 ins­tead of in front of the Süd­tri­bü­ne. But I dig­ress. Like Stutt­gart, BVB has also under­go­ne a major over­haul — per­haps an even big­ger one. Many fami­li­ar faces like Reus, Hum­mels, and Ter­zic have left (or had to lea­ve) the club, and many new play­ers are meant to fill the gaps. With Sahin, a new style of foot­ball has been brought to Borsig­platz, moving away from Terzic’s con­ser­va­ti­ve defen­si­ve play towards a more pos­ses­si­on-ori­en­ted game. So far, with suc­cess. Dort­mund is still unbea­ten this sea­son and has only drop­ped points in Bre­men.

None­thel­ess, I can under­stand why VfB is still con­side­red — at least accor­ding to the bet­ting odds — the favo­ri­te going into the game. We’ve won the last three encoun­ters, the inju­ry list is clea­ring up, the team is fin­ding its rhythm, and we’re play­ing at home in the Neckar­sta­di­on. Dort­mund also gives a few argu­ments for this. Now and then, Dort­mund still suf­fers from the incon­sis­ten­cy of last sea­son. Against Hei­den­heim, they near­ly let a 2–0 lead slip, Bre­men couldn’t capi­ta­li­ze on their nume­ri­cal advan­ta­ge, and Brug­ge strug­g­led with missed chan­ces on Wed­nes­day evening.

So, we’re not wit­hout a chan­ce. But it won’t be as easy as last year against Borus­sia.

Team Situation

The good news is that Nar­tey and new­co­mer Al-Dak­hil may be available again start­ing next week. Ster­giou is also in reha­bi­li­ta­ti­on trai­ning and could be an opti­on next week. I’m par­ti­cu­lar­ly hap­py for Nar­tey. I real­ly hope to see him play in a VfB jer­sey again, alt­hough, given his lack of match prac­ti­ce and trai­ning defi­cit, he won’t exact­ly be set­ting the world on fire. Howe­ver, both will still be unavailable against BVB. Addi­tio­nal­ly, Jus­tin Diehl joins the list of inju­red play­ers after dis­lo­ca­ting his should­er in an U21 match.

Possible Starting Line-up

Basi­cal­ly, the same start­ing XI, alt­hough Cha­se will likely rota­te in for Rou­ault to ease the load on the recent­ly fit French­man. Zag­adou could also slide in, but I think it’s still too ear­ly for him to start. Up front, Demi­ro­vic could replace Undav, and Rie­der could take Führich’s spot.

Statistics

In 108 Bun­des­li­ga encoun­ters, thanks to the two wins last sea­son, VfB has now over­ta­ken Dort­mund in head-to-head vic­to­ries. The cur­rent tal­ly is 42:41 wins in favor of the Swa­bi­ans. Only the goal dif­fe­rence is still ‑8 in favor of Dort­mund. VfB has won 28 of their 42 vic­to­ries at their home Neckar­sta­di­on, alt­hough home wins against the Black and Yel­lows have been rare late­ly. Bes­i­des last season’s win, VfB last secu­red three points at home against Dort­mund in 2017 and 2010. Despi­te Sahin’s offen­si­ve approach, Dortmund’s defen­se remains very strong. With only two goals con­ce­ded, they boast the best defen­se in the league after Uni­on Ber­lin. This isn’t just due to the strong per­for­man­ces of for­mer VfB play­er Gre­gor Kobel in goal, but also becau­se BVB hard­ly allows any chan­ces. They have con­ce­ded the fewest xGoals and, along with Bay­ern, have allo­wed the fewest shots on goal.

Conclusion

It’s going to be a tough and emo­tio­nal game for VfB. BVB is coming to Stutt­gart with new strength and con­fi­dence, while VfB is just start­ing to find its form. I think our win­ning streak against Dort­mund will end, and we’ll walk away from this match­day wit­hout points.

Pic­tu­re: © Alex­an­der Hassenstein/Getty Images