Borussia Dortmund will be looking to return to winning ways in the Bundesliga on Saturday when they welcome Augsburg to Signal Iduna Park.
The hosts fell to a defeat in league action last weekend but bounced back with a win in the Champions League in midweek, whilst Augsburg are looking for just their second win of the season so far.
Match preview
© Reuters
Marco Rose's return to former employers Borussia Monchengladbach at Borussia-Park last weekend was a miserable one after his new side fell 1-0 in a poor display.
With key players Marco Reus and Erling Braut Haaland missing for the trip, BVB lacked any threat in the final third and, as a result, failed to even register a shot on target against a side that they could be battling for a European place come the end of the campaign.
The match was decided in a short four-minute spell towards the end of the first half. Denis Zakaria fired home for the hosts and things went from bad to worse for the visitors when Mahmoud Dahoud was poorly sent off for a second booking after arguing with the referee.
Still lacking Haaland, but welcoming back Reus, Dortmund bounced back with a narrow 1-0 win in midweek against Sporting Lisbon in the Champions League, where Donyell Malen finally netted his first goal for the club following his summer arrival.
It was a far-from-perfect display by Rose's men, in a tight encounter that could have swung either way based on the chances created by both sides, but the result was what mattered as Dortmund made it two wins from two in the European group stages.
Attentions will now turn back to the Bundesliga, where the Black and Yellows will hope to rediscover the form that has seen them win all three home league matches so far, scoring 12 goals in the process.
© Reuters
As for the visitors, their quality of play in the final third so far this campaign has been a fraction of that on display from their hosts.
Augsburg have managed to score just the two goals from their opening six league matches, giving them the unwanted title of the division's worst attack at present.
To make matters worse and to draw on the negatives even further, both of those goals have arrived on home soil, with Fuggerstadter achieving two goalless draws on the road before a 3-0 defeat on their visit to Freiburg last weekend.
The loss was certainly what Augsburg deserved, and the scoreline possibly even flattered the visitors when you consider the good performance from goalkeeper Rafal Gikiewicz to keep it respectable, after finding themselves 3-0 down before half time.
Markus Weinzierl's men would have been hoping for a bright start to the season to ease relegation concerns earlier on in the campaign this time around, but five points from the opening six matches and a struggling forward line have given supporters little hope so far.
After an impressive short run of results on visits to Signal Iduna Park a few years back, Saturday's visitors will be looking to avoid a repeat of the last three trips to Dortmund, where they have lost on all three occasions and conceded 12 goals in the process.
- W
- L
- W
- W
- W
- L
- W
- W
- W
- W
- L
- W
- L
- D
- L
- D
- W
- L
Team News
© Reuters
The hosts are expecting their key man Haaland to be fit when they welcome Augsburg on Saturday, after the Norwegian star missed the last two fixtures over the past week.
Dortmund are a different side without him, and after welcoming back Reus in midweek, they will be back to near-full strength should he return.
After his red card last weekend, Dahoud will sit this one out through suspension, whilst Emre Can, Soumaila Coulibaly, Mateu Morey, Giovanni Reyna, Marcel Schmelzer, Dan-Axel Zagadou and Steffen Tigges all remain out injured.
Meanwhile, the visitors have a number of injury concerns themselves ahead of the trip to Dortmund.
Florian Niederlechner is a doubt due to a groin strain, whilst fellow regular striker Alfred Finnbogason remains unavailable too.
Felix Uduokhai also misses out and Iago, Andre Hahn and Jan Moravek have all been listed as doubts for manager Weinzierl.
Borussia Dortmund possible starting lineup:
Kobel; Meunier, Akanji, Hummels, Guerreiro; Bellingham, Witsel, Brandt; Reus; Malen, Haaland
Augsburg possible starting lineup:
Gikiewicz; Gumny, Gouweleeuw, Oxford; Framberger, Jensen, Dorsch, Caligiuri, Pedersen; Vargas, Zeqiri
We say: Borussia Dortmund 4-1 Augsburg
The predictions for this match could almost be entirely different depending on the availability of Haaland for Dortmund. Regardless, it should be a comfortable win for the home side against a poor Augsburg side so far this season.
Top tip
Matthew Tranter
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Borussia Dortmund win with a probability of 66.41%. A draw had a probability of 18.5% and a win for Augsburg had a probability of 15.05%.
The most likely scoreline for a Borussia Dortmund win was 2-1 with a probability of 9.76%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-0 (9.76%) and 1-0 (8.51%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (8.51%), while for an Augsburg win it was 1-2 (4.26%). The actual scoreline of 2-1 was predicted with a 9.8% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted a 2-1 win for Borussia Dortmund in this match.
