Bayer 04 Leverkusen vs Borussia Dortmund 30/09/18

30 September 2018

After an outstanding 7-0 triumph over Nurnberg in midweek, Borussia Dortmund will be traveling to Leverkusen, where they shall take on Bayer 04, with the match scheduled to take place at the BayArena.

The Company XI have started the season with a narrow 1-0 win over the German lower-league side Pforzheim, after which they’ve suffered three consecutive defeats in the Bundesliga, losing to Borussia Monchengladbach, Wolfsburg, and Bayern Munich. However, an impressive comeback and a 3-2 victory over the Bulgarian outfit Ludogorets in the Europa League seems to be the turning point for Heiko Herrlich’s team in this stage of the season, as they’ve maintained the same performance against Mainz and Fortuna Dusseldorf, clinching two straight wins, thus climbing up the league table.

On the other hand, as the best offensive team in the Bundesliga, the Black and Yellows are currently second-placed with a 2-point deficit to Bayern Munich. The lack of consistency appears to be the BVB’s principal problem this season, considering they’ve failed to achieve two successive wins in the league, although they are yet to lose a competitive match. Additionally, in both away games, Lucien Favre’s team failed to wrap up all three points, playing out two draws with Hannover and TSG Hoffenheim.

Thorsten Kirschbaum, Panagiotis Retsos, Julian Baumgartlinger, Charles Aranguiz, and Joel Pohjanpalo are sidelined with injuries, while Karim Bellarabi won’t be available after picking up a straight red card against the Bavarians. As for the visitors, Raphael Guerreiro, Jeremy Toljan, Sebastian Rode, and Omer Toprak are out with injuries, while Mario Gotze and Marius Wolf could recover from slight physical problems. Abdou Diallo, however, won’t be able to help his teammates after getting sent off against Hoffenheim last weekend.