Battle of the inconsistent namesakes
Reading Time: 2min | Fri. 11.11.22. | 14:00
Bundesliga round 15 is opened by two Borussias at Monchengladbach
Two sides with great history and big ambition but far lower positioning in the standings than they wish for. They also share their latest result in the league - losses found Dortmund in Wolfsburg and Gladbach in Bochum and both teams will be looking to bounce back from those midweek defeats.
However, poor form goes even further, especially for Gladbach, who succumbed to a third loss in their last four league games. Should they fall to another defeat to Dortmund on Friday in their final match ahead of the World Cup, then Gladbach will almost certainly end this period in the bottom half of the table, which seemed unthinkable after enjoying a very strong start under Daniel Farke's management.
Gladbach's loss of form in recent weeks has undoubtedly been contributed to by serious injuries to key players, with Yann Sommer and Florian Neuhaus suffering serious ankle and ACL injuries respectively.
Tony Jantschke, Hannes Wolf and Ko Itakura are all ruled out of Friday's match against BVB, too, with Farke likely to be considering restoring club captain Lars Stindl to the starting eleven in order to provide more attacking impetus to the side.
Dortmund, meanwhile, fell six points behind league leaders Bayern Munich and with Bayern facing BVB's fiercest rivals Schalke - who are undoubtedly the worst team in the league on current form - on Saturday, Dortmund surely must return from Monchengladbach with a victory if they are to avoid their deficit to the Bavarians becoming untenable prior to the break for the World Cup.
The Millionaires will travel to Borussia-Park without Marius Wolf, Tim Rothe, Thomas Meunier, Jamie Bynoe-Gittens, Mateu Morey, Mahmoud Dahoud and Sebastien Haller, while Marco Reus missed the trip to Wolfsburg in midweek with an ankle issue and is unlikely to be risked.
Anthony Modeste, Thorgan Hazard and Giovanni Reyna all came off the bench during the defeat, and Terzic may be considering mixing up his attacking options having been wasteful last time out. Dortmund’s last away league goal was scored by Jude Bellingham, though the hosts are just one of five Bundesliga teams that he doesn’t hold a positive record against (W2, L2).
BUNDESLIGA - ROUND 15
Friday
22:30: (3.20) M' gladbach (3.60) Dortmund (2.30)
Saturday
17:30: (2.30) Augsburg (3.50) Bochum (3.25)
17:30: (1.75) Leverkusen (4.00) Stuttgart (4.90)
17:30: (2.30) Hertha (3.50) Koln (3.25)
17:30: (2.30) Hoffenheim (3.50) Wolfsburg (3.25)
17:30: (4.10) Werder (3.80) RB Leipzig (1.92)
20:30: (18.0) Schalke (8.00) Bayern (1.18)
Sunday
17:30: (2.95) Mainz (3.40) Eintr.Frankfurt (2.55)
19:30: (2.15) Freiburg (3.25) Union Berlin (3.90)
***odds are subject to change***
