The scenarioBorussia Dortmund journey to Saxony on the again of six Bundesliga wins and a 2-0 dwelling victory in opposition to Atalanta within the UEFA Champions League throughout the week. Issues have additionally been going nicely away from dwelling not too long ago, with the Black & Yellows avoiding defeat in any of their final seven Bundesliga away video games, profitable 4 of them. “We’re in good type in the mean time; everybody can see that. We need to take this momentum with us to Leipzig and, after all, we need to get the three factors,” says BVB coach Niko Kovac.
Borussia are at the moment 11 factors forward of Leipzig within the desk and may enhance their lead over a rival within the battle for Champions League locations on Saturday. “We’re coming into the ultimate third of the season, which is crunch time,” says Kovac. “We all know it is that point of the season as a result of the knockout video games have began within the Champions League. There’s additionally so much at stake within the Bundesliga as a result of many groups need to get into the Champions League and a few groups do not need to be relegated.” his personal workforce, the coach explains: “The workforce is growing very positively. We’re heading in the right direction. The following sport is a very powerful one, and that is Leipzig on Saturday.”
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Personnel mattersThe listing of absentees is unchanged from the match in opposition to Atalanta and nonetheless consists of the 4 centre-backs Emre Can, Nico Schlotterbeck, Niklas Süle and Filippo Mane. Schlotterbeck was again on the pitch on Thursday and “feels good”, in response to Kovac, who additionally defined: “We do not need to take an excessive amount of of a danger. We’ve to be affected person.” This might imply one other likelihood for teenager Luca Reggiani. After a one-minute cameo in opposition to Wolfsburg, half an hour in opposition to Mainz and 90 minutes in opposition to Atalanta, Kovac praised the 18-year-old: “He is definitely had two actually good video games. He is bodily match and coped very nicely with the sport. However we’ll additionally should watch out to not burn him out. We’ll should see how we will handle his enjoying time.”
The opponentLeipzig have gained solely one among their final 5 aggressive matches, have been knocked out of the DFB-Pokal and have slipped out of the Champions League locations – the Saxons are in fifth, two factors behind fourth-placed Stuttgart. However, Kovac emphasises: “Leipzig have an excellent workforce with a variety of potential. They confirmed in opposition to Bayern, each within the return leg and within the cup, that they had been shut. We’re not underestimating them regardless of their latest outcomes.” One potential benefit for Leipzig is that they don’t seem to be at the moment enjoying in Europe, in order that they solely should combat for factors on the weekend. “They’ll put together each little element, they’ve the required freshness, they usually even have a variety of match gamers,” mentioned Kovac. “That is why we’ll have to offer 100% there too.”
ReunionDortmund’s Daniel Svensson and Leipzig’s Conrad More durable know one another from their time collectively at FC Nordsjaelland. Sweden’s Svensson joined the Danish first division membership’s youth workforce in 2020, whereas Denmark’s More durable arrived in 2019. Each made the step as much as the primary workforce and performed collectively in 36 first-team matches. Whereas Svensson is at dwelling in defence, More durable is chargeable for scoring objectives. In 2024, their paths diverged, with More durable shifting to Sporting Lisbon after which to Leipzig a 12 months later and Svensson becoming a member of BVB at the start of 2025.
Christina Reinke
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