FIRST TEAM
11/26/2009

No injury worries ahead of Dortmund clash

1899 Hoffenheim take on Borussia Dortmund on the back of a resounding 4-0 away victory in Köln. Kick off Saturday, 15:30 CET

Head coach Ralf Rangnick is confident ahead of the clash with the Ruhr giants, though he is airing on the side of caution: "Borussia have improved a lot defensively. It's going to be a different game to last year's fixture. I think it's going to be a tough match and we'll need to remain focussed for the entire 90 minutes. If we can do that, we should be able to keep pace at the top of the table." Defender Christian Eichner sees the match as a similar proposition to his side's last home game against Wolfsburg: "We're in the same position we were ahead of the Wolfsburg match. We did well away from home, but now we need to impose our game on home turf," said the 27-year-old, who celebrated his birthday on Tuesday.

Rangnick spoilt for choice

Rangnick was delighted to have all his first-choice players in training for the first time this week. Carlos Eduardo, Josip Simunic and Sejad Salihovic had previously all been on a reduced schedule, but Boris Vukcevic was the only player who had to train alone on Thursday. Nonetheless, Rangnick is confident that the German midfielder will overcome his ankle problem before Saturday's match. Marco Terrazino and Jukka Raitala look likely to be involved in the U-23's match in Nöttingen on Friday, while Andreas Ibertsberger returned to training, albeit with a face mask following the injury he sustained against SC Freiburg. "It's up to Andreas whether he feels ready to play on Saturday," said Rangnick.

Hoffenheim the form side

There have been two previous meetings between Hoffenheim and Borussia Dortmund in the Bundesliga. Last year, Ralf Rangnick's charges put in a quality attacking display to record a deserved 4-1 victory in Mannheim. Vedad Ibisevic (2), Carlos Eduardo and Sejad Salihovic got the goals for the men in blue, while Santana grabbed a late consolation goal for the visitors. The return fixture at the Signal-Iduna-Park ended goalless.

Three out for Dortmund

Dortmund coach Jürgen Klopp, meanwhile, has plenty of re-jigging to do ahead of Saturday's match in Kraichgau. Long-term absentees Sebastian Kehl and Tamas Hajnal have been joined by Dede and Dimitar Rangelov in the treatment room, while Nelson Valdez is also a doubt. "He picked up a heavy knock in training yesterday," explained Klopp, who should have Tinga and Sven Bender at his disposal following their respective recoveries.

Stat-Attack

• Hoffenheim are yet to beat a team from the top half of the table, picking up just two points from six matches. Against teams from the bottom half, however, they have won seven out of seven.
• Only Borussia Mönchengladbach have conceded as many goals from outside the area as Dortmund (34%). Good news for Hoffenheim, who have scored more goals from outside the box than any other team (7).
• Only Leverkusen (14) and Hamburg (17) have scored more goals in the first half of matches than Hoffenheim (13, joint with Bremen). Only Köln (4) have scored fewer goals in the second half than Dortmund (6).
• No team has completed as many crosses from open play as BVB (31.2%).
• Hoffenheim have the best tackle success rate in the league, winning 54% of their 1542 duels. Simunic is the second best defender in the league, winning 72.5% of his challenges in comparison with Bremen's Per Mertesacker, who has won 73.5%.
• BVB are 16th in the chance conversion stakes with just 8.8% of their chances ending in a goal.
• Klopp will be contesting his 150th match as a Bundesliga coach. He has a slightly negative record of 48 wins, 49 draws and 53 defeats.
• The 4.0 victory in Köln was Hoffenheim's biggest away victory in the Bundesliga. Carlos Eduardo scored his third goal of the season in the fifth minute - the last four matches in which the Brazilian has scored have been won by Hoffenheim.

Download Now!
Print Page to top