Bundesliga Preview: Borussia Dortmund vs Augsburg
Borussia Dortmund will travel to Augsburg after getting back on track from consecutive poor performances. Lucien Favre’s side will be hoping to gain some momentum as they host Tottenham in the Champions League hoping to overturn a 3-0 deficit.
Match information
Location: Augsburg Arena
Date: 1/3/2019
Time: 8:30PM CET |7:30PM GMT| 2:30PM ET
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FC Augsburg
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Augsburg also haven’t been having the best month as they are winless in their past three games. Not to mention last week’s embarrassing hammering by Freiburg who picked up their first win of the year. Despite sitting just 4 points above a relegation spot Augsburg do have the quality to give even the big teams a run for their money. They led Bayern twice on matchday 22 but failed to grab the victory as Kingsley Coman’s brace helped Bayern snatch all 3 points. They have shown their attacking threat but struggle quite a bit at the back. It is doubtful that they will park the bus but try and come away with all 3 points.
Borussia Dortmund
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Its been a shaky month for the Black and Yellows as they have struggled to grind out positive results this past month. After being eliminated from the DFB Pokal along with a very high chance of crashing out of the Champions League, Der BVB need to turn their full attention to the Bundesliga. But things are starting to look up as both Manuel Akanji and Marco Reus have returned from injury and are likely to start. Dortmund have struggled without these two and their inclusion into the squad will be key to other players to succeed such as the struggling Paco Alcacer.
Team News
Augsburg are missing a lot of key players such as star man Alfred Finnbogason who has 10 goals this season so far. Other names include Framberger, Gouweleeuw, Luthe, Oxford, Schieber, and Hahn. It will be interesting to see how Augsburg can manage with all these injuries but are more than capable of grinding out a result.
The much-awaited return of Marco Reus is definitely on the cards as he returned to training following a muscle tear in the Pokal defeat to Werder Bremen. Borussia Dortmund have shown their reliance on Der Kapitan as he played a part in 10 league goals over the past 12 games against Augsburg. Lukasz Piszczek and Christian Pulisic are both set to miss the game due to heel and hamstring injuries respectfully. While Marcel Schmelzer is also out after suffering an injury in training.
Last Match: Borussia Dortmund 4 – 3 FC Augsburg
No Borussia Dortmund fan will forget one of the best games in recent memory anytime soon. The reverse fixture back in October was no doubt one of the games of the season. It was the Paco Alcacer show as he bagged a hattrick with the very last kick of the game. Mario Gotze also got on the score sheet to truly mark his return to the Bundesliga. Augsburg will be hoping to avenge this loss but are still winless in their last 8 meetings with Borussia Dortmund.