Borussia Dortmund head coach Niko Kovac has offered some generous words of puffery for TSG Hoffenheim ahead of his team's tricky Bundesliga clash with them on Saturday.
The BVB visit Sinsheim for matchday two of the new top-flight campaign, aiming to build on their winning start as Die Kraichgauer aim for a repeat of their April result.
Dortmund's last visit to Rhein-Neckar-Arena, coming on matchday 30 of the last Bundesliga season, ended in a stoppage-time defeat with Andrej Kramaric scoring two penalties.
After seeing his first-half opener for Hoffenheim canceled out by Serhou Guirassy late on, the Croatian converted another spot-kick in the eighth added minute to condemn BVB to a 2-1 defeat.
Kovac praised his Hoffenheim counterpart Christian Ilzer for patiently building his squad since taking over in 2024 and now executing a fearsome attacking style of play.
"You can see how important it is to give someone the time to implement certain things—to have one, or even several, transfer windows to make changes and adjustments. The style of soccer played in Hoffenheim is very intense, very aggressive, and very direct."
Although the Sinsheim outfit began their campaign with a 4-0 win over Erzgebirge Aue in the DFB-Pokal, FC Koln served to hand them an opening day loss in the Bundesliga last weekend.
The Billy Goats twice canceled Hoffenheim out before Thijs Dallinga netted a late winner to secure a 3-2 win for the home side.
Kovac though, isn't taking them lightly. With the April defeat still fresh in the memory, the BVB coach expects a 'close' encounter once again tomorrow.
"Games against Hoffenheim are always close; it comes down to the little things and who can impose their style of play more effectively than the opponent. I hope that’s us. After our strong start against HSV, we’ve got the momentum on our side, and we want to capitalize on that."
Since the Supercup defeat to Bayern Munich in the season-opener, Dortmund have recovered to win their next two: a 2-0 win over Hamburger SV in their opening Bundesliga match of the season followed by a 5-0 drubbing of fifth-tier HEBC in the first round of the DFB-Pokal.
With such momentum under their belt, the Prussians are now favorites coming into tomorrow's clash, having also won eight of their previous 11 meetings with the side in all competitions. They haven't lost to Hoffenheim in back-to-back games since 2019-20 (2).
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