Bundesliga: Can the Foals Stamp on BVB’s Title Hopes?

Borussia Dortmund vs Borussia Monchengladbach

Marco Rose welcomes his former club to the Signal Iduna Park on Sunday when the Bundesliga match between Borussia Dortmund and Borussia Monchengladbach is the entertainment on offer. And it could well be box office stuff.

Die Scwharzgelben come into the game on the back of a shock defeat to Glasgow Rangers in the Europa League while Monchengladbach edged out Augsburg in a Bundesliga five-goal thriller last week.

The pre-match Bundesliga 2022 odds point to a home win at odds of 1.56, while the Foals are available at a price of 4.74 and the draw is a little shorter at 4.16.

BVB are in hot pursuit of Bayern Munich at the top of the table, but they have been uncertain on home turf recently and can ill afford to drop any points on Sunday.

Pressure can do funny things and we’ll learn plenty about Dortmund’s title ambitions when the fighting Foals come to town.      

Talking Points

Haaland touch and go for Dortmund

Die Schwarzgelben have one of the world’s hottest properties in their ranks but Erling Haaland has struggled with injuries this term, playing just 14 league games.

And the fact that he has scored 16 goals in that time tell you just how vital he is to BVB’s hopes. He’s been out of action over the past three games with a muscle injury and in that time, Rose’s men have won one and suffered two damaging defeats.

The big Norwegian trained with the team ahead of the Europa League clash with Rangers but didn’t feature in the match day squad, and fans will be hoping that they’ll get the good Bundesliga 2022 news about his availability.

Haaland opened the scoring when BVB won a five-goal thriller away to Hoffenheim recently, but that was the last we saw of him. Although last week’s trip to Berlin ended in a 3-0 victory over Union Berlin, on their last league game at home, BVB were spanked 5-2 by Bayer Leverkusen.

But Thursday night’s humbling by Scottish PL team Rangers was a major shock to the system and Rose will want an immediate response. After the Glasgow battlers went 3-0 up, an own goal courtesy of Dan-Axel Zagadou, sandwiched by strikes from Jude Bellingham and Raphael Guerreiro, made it 4-2 by the final whistle and Dortmund are still in the tie. This was not how BVB had planned their 1,000^th game at the Signal Iduna Park.

Head coach Rose will be pleased that his team is still in the title hunt after Bochum did them a huge favour by beating FC Bayern last week and he will hope his men can take advantage.

The experienced players are leading by example as captain Marco Reus made it seven goals for the campaign with his double in the win over Union Berlin while midfield ace Julian Brandt has six assists.

Add Haaland into the mix and BVB have a winning formula.

Foals look to build on big win

Gladbach are 13^th in the table and just four points above Augsburg who currently occupy the play-off spot, so the three points the Foals took last week were priceless.

Head coach Adi Hutter needs his side to build on that and he is relying heavily on his midfield pair of Jonas Hofmann and Florian Neuhaus who have scored eight and four goals respectively.

Hofmann was on target in the 3-2 win over Augsburg and he has been the Foals’ go-to man over the past couple of campaigns. 

Striker Lars Stindl is sidelined so four-goal Alassane Plea is likely to lead the line against a BVB defence which has been leaky of late.

History

The head-to-heads give the hosts cause for more optimism as they have won 33 to the Foals 16 of the last 59 encounters while there have been 10 draws.

And in terms of recent form, Die Scwharzgelben have a clear edge – winning four of the last six while Monchengladbach have won just two.

When the two teams last met on Monchengladbach’s home turf, Denis Zakaria scored to give Hutter’s men a 1-0 victory. 

Dortmund have not lost to these opponents on their last eight visits to the Signal Iduna Park and they have a home record of nine wins and two losses this season, but they have been stuttering at home in recent weeks.      

Betting Tip

	Borussia Dortmund vs Borussia Monchengladbach	Over 3.25 @ 1.95
	February 21, 00:30 (GMT+8)

This could be a great game for SBOTOP football fans and neutrals to enjoy as we expect plenty of goalmouth action.

Five of Monchengladbach’s last six games have yielded over 2.5 goals and all six of BVB’s hit that mark, so I predict a game where the attacks are on top.

 

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