Hamburger SV vs Borussia Dortmund – Bundesliga – Preview

Posted on November 20, 2015 by Sreya

As two weeks of international football draws to a close, Bundesliga returns to action with Borussia Dortmund travelling to Imtech Arena to face Hamburger SV. Thomas Tuchel’s Borussia Dortmund sit on the second position in league standings with 29 points after twelve matches while Hamburger SV are in eleventh position with just fifteen points to their name.

Team News

According to the ESPN, the hosts are reportedly set to be without midfielder Aaron Hunt, who is nursing a thigh injury and suffered an injury setback during the international break, limiting him to individual training sessions.

Marco Reus will return to the Dortmund side, confirmed Tuchel in his pre-match press conference as the German international had extensively trained with the rest of the squad. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is also available after the forward missed a World Cup qualifier against Mozambique with a knee injury. Nuri Sahin is still unavailable though.

Thoughts From Both Camps

“It is no surprise that BVB have recovered from the previous season. At that time they had a lot of national players who played a World Cup for the first time, plus a lot of injured players.”

– Bruno Labbadia, Hamburger SV.

“We have worked hard over the past two weeks and are ready for the game against Hamburg. We are calm and optimistic ahead of the game. It is an important match for us. We have had some tough games in Hamburg in recent years. I think this is one of the best seasons of my career so far and I am obviously very happy with it.”

– Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Borussia Dortmund.

Contributor’s Pick

Borussia Dortmund have scored a minimum of two goals in eleven of their last thirteen matches, while an average of 2.5 goals have been scored in twelve of their last fourteen Bundesliga games. It should be a high scoring game.

Hamburger SV have been extremely vulnerable against players with technical quality and are likely to concede early into the match. With Borussia Dortmund coming into the match on the back of four wins, the scales are tilted in favour of Thomas Tuchel’s side.

The Head-2-Head statistics have depicted Borussia Dortmund’s struggling form at the Volksparkstadion in recent years, where they last won in 2011/12 season. Since then, Borussia Dortmund have lost twice and have played out a goalless draw once. In all competitions till date, Borussia Dortmund have won 29% and lost 36% of their games against Hamburger SV.

Borussia Dortmund are likely to win with a scoreline of 3-1.