Bayer Leverkusen - Borussia Dortmund

Statistic:

- Leverkusen won not one of the last 7 home matches against Dortmund (0-4-3).
- Against no other team is Leverkusen waiting so long for a win, since 2007.
- Dortmund was the first time on bottom zone over the winter break and playing their 2nd weakest season.
- Leverkusen stands with 28 Points on third place now but it is an absolutely negative number.
- Since we have the 3 Points rule, no team has less Points after 17 Rounds as Leverkusen this time.
- The last 8 games against Leverkusen were all standard situations.
- Dortmund scored only 4 goals after free kicks or corners, so they are limited there.
- New signing Kevin Kampl played for Leverkusen youth already.

After Wolfsburg's win yesterday and the advantage of 9 Points to Leverkusen they have to look forward to get the 3 Points today that they can hold the pressure on the second placed team from Wolfsburg high. According to news, they have some players not available as with Son and Kruse are both at the Asia Cup and both are in the final and played against each other today. The Australian Kruse had the better outcome, he won the Asia Cup with Australia. Also wing Jedvaj is not ready after a muscle problem. In this case the positions from Jedvaj and Son must be replaced here. First on the wing can be Hilbert who has a lot of experience and in offensive line it can be Drmic who takes the place from Son. Some options for Schmitt here, he can play with two strikers Drmic and Kießling and two players behind with Calhanoglu and Bellarabi or he change to one striker and let Drmic play on the wing. All is possible. Hopefully their batteries are full again and we can expect an equal match from them as to begin of the season where they overcome Dortmund easily and had not much problems to control the game with their high pressing.

The team from Dortmund played their 2nd weakest first half of the season and they sit at the bottom now. For this reason they signed Kampl form Salzburg to get more action in their offensive play with his fast dribblings. Also they want to have some more options if Reus oder some others are not available to due injuries. They had a lot of absent players and this time again a lot of problems arrived in Dortmund. With Bender, Kehl and sometimes Gündogan they had not many central midfield players left. The first two are out for sure today, also Kuba is not ready. Kagawa missed the preparation because he was in Australia and played the Asia Cup with Japan. Aubameyang was in Africa to play the Cup with Gabun there but they are already out and he returns but is he ready? From warm weather into cold weather it is a huge step. Some changes happened anyway because with Langerak is one player with his national team and in this case Weidenfeller returns into the goal today. Also defender Socrates is back from injury and can play beside Hummels in central back. Central midfield is more difficult because they miss some here. It would be nice to see what Coach Klopp field there. Maybe Sahin and Gündogan, if he can play. Offensive is also open above all the attackers are not very good in front of the goal. Immobile has a lot to improve, also Ramos has not his best level and Aubameyang returns from African Cup recently. The biggest thing what was to see in friendlies is that they count more on defensive, they played several times 1-0 and tried not to allow much. This is the new philosophy from Klopp maybe and the key to get out of the red zone.

I expect a very open match here as both teams has a lot of class in their rows.