Preview: Borussia Dortmund look to stay perfect against Hannover 96

Borussia Dortmund have started the season with two straight wins. Following a 4-1 win over RB Leipzig in their Bundesliga opener, Favre and co. now travel to Hannover 96 on matchday 2. Deadline day is upon us and three valuable points are up for grabs. Can Borussia Dortmund continue their successful start?

Match information

Location: Hannover, Germany (HDI-Arena)

Date: August 31, 2018

Time: 2:30PM (ET)/8:30PM (Local time)

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Borussia Dortmund

WW

Borussia Dortmund fell behind after just 30 seconds last weekend. But as we know, important goals from Mahmoud Dahoud and Axel Witsel proved to be the difference maker. Before Marco Reus got his 100^th career Bundesliga goal following an assist by Jadon Sancho. It was a stunning turnaround as Borussia Dortmund issued a great statement of intent against rivals Leipzig.

The question is again is who starts for this match and what the options on the bench will be. Marcel Schmelzer and Lukasz Piszczek started as fullbacks, but they are only able to run for so long at this point. It makes one wonder if Dan-Axel Zagadou or Jeremy Toljan will start to get nods for first team action, or if Favre has a completely different set up when he needs to rest players.

Hannover 96

WD

Hannover 96 started the season with a win in the DFB-Pokal over Karlsruher. It was a dominating 0-6 scoreline against the third tier side. With that victory, H96 moved on to the next round of the DFB-Pokal. Their next opponent in the cup will be Wolfsburg.

The following match saw them secure a draw against Werder Bremen. Both teams failed to create anything meaningful in the first half. The second half saw H96 opening the scoring with Hendrik Weydandt, who found the net shortly after being brought on for his top-flight debut. This lead was short-lived as Michael Esser let Bremen defender Gebre Selassie in for an easy goal at 85 minutes.

Team News

New signing Paco Alcacer has not traveled with the squad for the game against Hannover. Christian Pulisic is also out with a muscular problem. But Julian Weigl has travelled with the side and could be on the bench. The game comes too soon for Jacob Bruun Larsen, who is still recovering from his foot injury. Nuri Sahin and Shinji Kagawa are also set to miss out.

Jadon Sancho and Marius Wolf will both be aiming to come into the starting lineup, but expect Favre to go with a similar lineup to the one we saw on Sunday.

The UEFA Champions League draw took place yesterday and will see Borussia Dortmund take on Atletico Madrid, AC Monaco and Club Brugge in Group A. These matches look exciting on paper and it will be interesting to see how Dortmund do in the Champions League this season.

Opposition Star Man: Hendrik Weydandt

Hendrik Weydandt was nearly unknown outside of Germany’s lower tier football leagues two weeks ago. He played for fourth tier team FC Germania Egestorf before Hannover snapped him up in the summer. The 23-year-old has already scored 3 times for H96 and is looking to secure a starting position on the team. With there being little more information to go on, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Weydandt get on the score sheet once again on Friday.

Last Match: Borussia Dortmund 1 Hannover 96 0

Hannover visited Borussia Dortmund in March and it is a loss they will want to forget. This is the match where Michy Batshuayi scored a beautiful heel flick from a corner. It ended up being the only goal of the match as Burki kept a clean sheet.

Possible Lineups

Borussia Dortmund: Burki – Piszczek, Akanji, Diallo, Schmelzer – Dahoud, Delaney, Witsel – Sancho, Philipp, Reus

Hannover 96: – Sorg, Anton, Wimmer, Ostrzolek – Bebou, Schwegler, Walace, Maina  – Weydandt, Füllkrug

Final prediction – Borussia Dortmund 2 Hannover 96 1