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Preview: Hannover 96 vs Borussia Dortmund

By Alex Orillac

MAGDEBURG, GERMANY - OCTOBER 24: Alexander Isak of Borussia Dortmund celebrates scoring the goal to the 0:2 together with his team mates during the DFB Cup match between 1. FC Magdeburg and Borussia Dortmund at MDCC Arena on October 24, 2017 in Magdeburg, Germany. (Photo by Alexandre Simoes/Borussia Dortmund/Getty Images)
MAGDEBURG, GERMANY - OCTOBER 24: Alexander Isak of Borussia Dortmund celebrates scoring the goal to the 0:2 together with his team mates during the DFB Cup match between 1. FC Magdeburg and Borussia Dortmund at MDCC Arena on October 24, 2017 in Magdeburg, Germany. (Photo by Alexandre Simoes/Borussia Dortmund/Getty Images) /
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This weekend, league-leaders Borussia Dortmund will face the current 6th placed team in the league, Hannover 96.

Both teams were in DFB-Pokal action during mid-week. Hannover suffered a 1-0 loss to Wolfsburg. While Borussia Dortmund are coming off a resounding 5-0 win against FC Magdeburg.

Match Information

Date: October 28th
Time: 2:30 p.m. CET (local time)/9:30 a.m. EST
Venue: HDI Arena, Hannover

Form Guide

Borussia Dortmund:
Last 5 matches: WLDDW
Last match: Borussia Dortmund 5-0 Fc Magdeburg
Analysis: Dortmund absolutely destroyed Fc Magdeburg in the second round of the DFB Pokal. Youngster Alexander Isak was amazing, assisting and scoring a goal. Also Bartra, Yarmolenko, Kagawa, and Castro scored for the Black and Yellows. In this game Dortmund decided to play with the 4-4-2 formation which hadn’t been used in the whole year. With this success we could see the 4-4-2 come back later on.

Hannover 96:
Last 4 matches: DWLWL
Last Match: Wolfsburg 1-0 Hannover 96
Analysis: Surprisingly Hannover couldn’t come up with a win against a weak Wolfsburg side. The wolves have had a pretty rough season start and are sitting at 14th place. New signing Felix Uduokhai scored the only goal of the game in the 49th minute. It was a tight game in which both teams had pretty similar stats but the visitors got eliminated from the DFB-Pokal.

Opposition star man

Martin Harnik is the man Dortmund will need to be careful with. The 30 year old Austrian midfielder has taken Hannover by storm. He has 7 goals and 2 assists in just 11 games. Thanks to his blistering start to the season, Hannover are sitting at 6th place in the Bundesliga. Harnik joined Hannover in 2016 for free after the departure of Japanese midfielder Hiroshi Kiyotake.

Teams Matchup History

Dortmund and Hannover have played 50 matches in all of their history. Currently Dortmund have the advantage, winning 25 of them. On the other hand, Hannover have only won 11 times. In the last 10 games, Hannover have only managed to defeat Dortmund once. A couple of notable legendary transfers between both teams are retired center midfielder Otto Addo, who played over 100 games for Hannover and 98 for Dortmund until 2006, Herbert Meyer, who played 90 games for Dortmund from 1976-1981, and Frank Pagelsdorf who played over 100 games for both Hannover and Dortmund. More recent transfers include Dortmund’s II star Janni Serra, current FC Köln left midfielder, Leanardo Bittencourt, and RB Leipzig’s left back Marcel Halstenberg.

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Possible Lineups

Dortmund 4-3-3
Bürki –Bartra, Sokratis (c), Toprak, Schmelzer – Weigl, Sahin, Götze – Philipp, Isak, Yarmolenko

Frankfurt 4-1-4-1
Esser – Korb, Sane, Anton, Ostrzolek – Schmiedebach – Bebou, Harnik (c), Bakalorz, Klaus – Füllkrug

Final Prediction

Hannover 96 2-1 Borussia Dortmund

This is a must-win game for Borussia Dortmund. After their loss against Leipzig and their draw against Frankfurt last weekend, Dortmund must get back to winning ways as they look to challenge for the title this season. Hannover could provide a tough test, especially when they are at home. But expect Borussia Dortmund to be on a high after their 5-0 mid-week win and secure the three points once again.

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