Borussia Dortmund head into their Bundesliga fixture with Union Berlin looking for the victory which will keep them in the top three of the standings.
However, they face opponents in Union Berlin who remain unbeaten in four games, albeit with three draws to their name.
Match preview
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Dortmund are among the clubs who are delighted that the summer transfer window has now closed, allowing them to focus on trying to dethrone champions Bayern Munich.
However, Marco Rose's will not pose any challenge to the dominant club in German football unless they improve in defence, their current streak without a clean sheet now standing at six matches in all competitions.
Rose will argue that the statistic does not necessarily matter after Dortmund rallied during the closing stages of their fixture at Bayer Leverkusen to win by a 4-3 scoreline.
Erling Braut Haaland improved his Bundesliga tally for the season with a double, and the in-demand Norway international now has nine strikes for the campaign in all competitions.
Dortmund head into this contest on the back of a hard-earned 2-1 win against Besiktas in the Champions League, their third successive win since August 27.
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Union Berlin are also competing in Europe this season having qualified for the Europa Conference League, but they went down by a 3-1 scoreline at Slavia Prague on Thursday evening.
While the small print will tell you that they played with 10 men for over 50 minutes, the setback in Czech Republic ended a nine-match unbeaten streak in all competitions.
On the domestic scene, Urs Fischer will be content with his team's start to the season after collecting six points from their four Bundesliga fixtures.
As it stands, they possess the third-best defensive record in the division, but Union Berlin desperately need more players to contribute in the final third with just Taiwo Awoniyi and Niko Giesselmann getting on the scoresheet.
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Team News
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With an extra day of recovery after the Besiktas game, Rose could select the majority of the players who started the fixture in Turkey.
Axel Witsel is an alternative in central midfield, the Belgium international potentially taking the place of Mahmoud Dahoud.
Fischer is expected to name a side similar to the one which featured during Union Berlin's goalless draw with Augsburg.
Genki Haraguchi, who dropped down to the substitutes' bench for that game, may be handed a recall in midfield.
Sheraldo Becker could come into contention for a start after two substitute outings over the past week.
Borussia Dortmund possible starting lineup:
Kobel; Meunier, Hummels, Akanji, Guerreiro; Bellingham, Dahoud, Brandt; Reus; Haaland, Malen
Union Berlin possible starting lineup:
Luth; Baumgartl, Knoche, Friedrich; Trimmel, Haraguchi, Khedira, Giesselmann; Becker, Awoniyi, Kruse
We say: Borussia Dortmund 4-1 Union Berlin
Despite already showing this season that they can put up a strong defensive rearguard against some of the better teams, Union Berlin may struggle to contain Dortmund. We expect a one-sided game at the Westfalenstadion with Haaland playing a pivotal role in the final third.
Top tip
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 55.65%. A win for Union Berlin had a probability of 22.32% and a draw had a probability of 22%.
The most likely scoreline for a Borussia Dortmund win was 2-1 with a probability of 9.85%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-0 (8.86%) and 2-0 (8.57%). The likeliest Union Berlin win was 1-2 (5.85%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (10.18%). The actual scoreline of 4-2 was predicted with a 1.8% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Borussia Dortmund would win this match.
