Pre-season friendly preview: Borussia Dortmund take on FC Gießen

Borussia Dortmund return to action on Tuesday as they take on FC Gießen in their first pre-season friendly of the summer (Kick-off: 18:30 CST).

Euro 2020 is over and Borussia Dortmund are set to kick-start their preparations for the new season on Tuesday with a friendly against Regionalliga side FC Gießen. The Waldstadion will play host and 4000 fans will be in attendance, as Marco Rose takes charge of his first game as BVB head coach.

Borussia Dortmund will have to make do without the eleven players who took part in the European Championships, as well as the four players who are currently sidelined with injuries (Youssoufa Moukoko, Dan-Axel Zagadou, Soumaila Coulibaly and Mateu Morey). The game also comes too soon for Erling Haaland, who returned to Dortmund on Sunday. While Reinier will miss the entire pre-season after being called up to the Brazil squad for the Olympic Games.

But Borussia Dortmund should still be able to field a strong line-up, featuring the likes of Marco Reus, Julian Brandt and Mahmoud Dahoud. A number of players from the U-19s team will also likely get a chance to impress. Gio Reyna, who took part in his first training session on Saturday, could also get a few minutes.

It will be interesting to see what formation Marco Rose decides to go with. The 44 year old hinted during his press conference last month that he could use a system with two strikers this season. But with the options available to him, it is likely that we will see a 4-2-3-1/4-3-3 formation on Tuesday.

While the result of the game is inconsequential, there will likely be a lot of goals on Tuesday with three divisions separating the two teams. The most important thing for the Borussia Dortmund players will be to build their fitness and get accustomed to Marco Rose’s tactical systems.

Expected Borussia Dortmund Starting XI vs FC Gießen: Hitz – Wolf, Collins, Schulz, Passlack – Dahoud, Gürpüz – Knauff, Brandt, Reus – Tigges