Duisburg vs Borussia Dortmund 15/09/20

15 September 2020

Borussia Dortmund’s 2020/21 season officially gets underway this week, as they head to the Schauinsland-Reisen-Arena to take on Duisburg in the first round of the DFB Pokal.

Duisburg narrowly missed out on securing a spot in the 3. Liga, finishing fifth in the table with a single-point deficit to fourth-placed Ingolstadt. Despite being betting outsiders ahead of the kick-off, the hosts can draw on a solid home form this calendar year. ‘Die Zebras’ have suffered just one defeat from ten competitive home fixtures since the turn of 2020 (W3, D6). Notably, four of their six draws during that ten-game sequence yielded the identical 1-1 scoreline, while three of those four results (wins/loss) producing a one-goal margin at full-time. Although this will only be their first competitive clash at this venue since 2008, Duisburg are unbeaten in all six of their previous such H2Hs (W2, D4).

As for the visitors, a draw has not been an option for them in 2020 as they’ve won 14 of 20 competitive matches since the calendar flipped, losing the other six. The ‘clean-sheet’ team played a vital role in the majority (65%) of those matches (13/20), which has been the case in four of their last four competitive trips (W4, L1). Remarkably, free-scoring Borussia Dortmund have netted over 1.5 goals in all but two of their ten competitive away fixtures, managing an average of 2.5 goals scored per competitive trip. The majority (80%) of their goals scored across those encounters arrived in the second half of play (20/25).