Match preview: Borussia Dortmund look to end their rut against Stuttgart

After a two week long international break, Borussia Dortmund will return on Friday to face Stuttgart away on the 12th match day of the Bundesliga

Match Information

Date: November 14th
Time: 8:30 p.m. CET (local time)/2:30 a.m. EST
Venue: Mercedes-Benz Arena, Stuttgart

Form Guide

Borussia Dortmund:
Last 5 matches: DWLDL
Last match: Borussia Dortmund 1-3 Bayern Munich

Analysis: Dortmund just couldn’t handle Bayern Munich at home two weeks ago. The first Der Klassiker of the season didn’t go as expected. A mixture of poor defending, poor tactics, and failure to score up front led to an agonizing 3-1 defeat. The Bavarian side scored the first goal in the 16th minute and never looked back. Later on the 37th minute, former Dortmund striker Robert Lewandowski made it 2-0 in favor of Bayern. As the game moved on Dortmund were uninspired and conceded a third goal to David Alaba on the 68th minute. Finally, late into the second half, Marc Bartra scored after a beautiful pass from Pulisic to give Dortmund a consolation goal, but it was too late to form a comeback.

VFB Stuttgart:
Last 5 matches: WLWWL
Last Match: VFB Stuttgart 1-3 Hamburger SV

Analysis: Stuttgart were completely dominated away at Hamburg. Dortmund-loaned center midfielder, Dženis Burnić was shown a double yellow card in less than 15 minutes, forcing Stuttgart to play with 10 men. Hamburg used this to their advantage and took the lead in the 20th minute, thanks to a goal by Aaron Hunt. After this in the second half, Stuttgart striker Ginczek scored off a penalty to level the game. After this it all went downhill for Stuttgart, who conceded 2 goals in 5 minutes to end their hopes of winning the game.

Opposition star man

VFB Stuttgart’s most dangerous man has to be German striker Daniel Ginczek. The 26 year old is a former Dortmund youth academy product that couldn’t make it to the starting lineup. Ever since he joined Stuttgart back in 2014, he has been only 1 of 3 players that still remain from that 2014/15 team. This season Ginczek has 3 goals in 7 games and could challenge Dortmund’s defense this Friday night.

Matchup History

Dortmund and Stuttgart have played 96 matches in all of their history. Currently Stuttgart has the advantage winning 38 of them. On the other hand, Dortmund has only won 34 times. In the last 10 games Dortmund has absolutely dominated Stuttgart outscoring them 30-14 and they have not lost a single game.

Transfer History

Between both of these teams many transfers have occured. First, we have the transfer of legendary goalkeeper Eike Immel who played for a combined of 615 games for both Dortmund and Stuttgart. Immel joined Stuttgart in 1986 for just $800k. He even won the Bundesliga in 1991 with Stuttgart. Next we have German-Serbian striker Fredi Bobic who played 182 games scoring 86 goals, he joined Dortmund from Stuttgart in 1999.

Possible lineups

Dortmund 4-3-3
Bürki – Bartra, Sokratis (c), Toprak, Guerreiro – Weigl, Castro, Götze – Yarmolenko, Philipp, Pulisic

Stuttgart 4-2-3-1
Zieler – Beck, Pavard, Baumgartl, Insua – Aogo (c), Ascacibar – Akolo, Mangala, Brekalo – Terodde

Final Prediction

VFB Stuttgart 1-2 Borussia Dortmund

Dortmund will desperate in search of a win after failing to get one in October. And Stuttgart will provide a tricky test at home. Some of Dortmund’s stars had the international break off and they will be well rested and will lead the Black and Yellows to three points.

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