Dortmund vs Schalke 04: Rivierderby Preview

The Rivierderby or The Ruhr Valley Derby is arguably the most fierce rivalry in German Football. Though the Bayern-Dortmund games are being touted as the German Clasico or Der Klassiker, as far as history and regional pride are concerned there are few that come near the game scheduled to be played at Westfalenstadion this Saturday.The two clubs have played each other 140 times since their first meeting on 3 May 1925, when Schalke beat Dortmund 4-2 at home. Since then Schalke have won the tie 55 times compared to Dortmund’s 47 times.

The two clubs currently stand 3rd and 4th in the league table with Schalke on 14 points and Dortmund on 12 points. Schalke have been playing well both in the Bundesliga and the Champions League, their only loss of the year has been against Bayern, but have allowed teams to come back after having taken the lead and controlling the proceedings. In fact, in all the three games that ended level Schalke have conceded the equaliser in the final 15 minutes.

Dortmund have had a similar start to their campaign as last year, while they were 8 points off the top of the table by Matchday 6 in 2011-12 this time they find themselves 9 points behind by Matchday 7. Last year, they managed to win the league with 8 points to spare and set a new record for the highest points total in Bundesliga history, though it did take them a 28 game unbeaten run to get there so it wasn’t easy. Their performances this year would cut across a wide spectrum.

Injury Concerns and Lineups

The International break has been a nightmare for Jurgen Klopp with Mario Gotze and Marcel Schmelzer both returning with question marks over their heads. Poland captain Jakub Blaszczykowski is out with an ankle injury. Ilkay Gundogan has resumed training but is still a doubt for Saturday. But even if none of the mentioned do make the starting lineup, Klopp has quality players waiting in the wings. Moritz Leitner or Sven Bender could substitute for Gundogan and Chris Lowe will substitute for Schmelzer at left back. As for Kuba and Gotze, Perisic and Grosskreutz have been key players for Dortmund for some time now and are fully fit.

Schalke wonderboy Julian Draxler is doubtful after having broken an arm against Montpellier. Kyriakos Papadopoulos is certainly out so captain Howedes will once again partner with Matip in the center of defense.

Dortmund (4-2-3-1) – Piszczek, Hummels, Subotic, Lowe – Bender, Kehl – Grosskreutz, Reus, Perisic – Lewandowski

Schalke 04 (4-2-3-1) – Uchida, Howedes, Matip, Fuchs – Neustader, Jones – Farfan, Holtby, Barnetta – Huntelaar

The Player to look out for

Marco Reus has come back after cementing his position as Die Mannschaft’s player at the left wing. After having gotten two goals against Ireland and was also involved in Germany’s first and second goals against Sweden. He has already delivered a few brilliant performances for Dortmund. And although he has gone missing in some of Dortmund’s poorer performances when he plays well the team plays well.

Prediction

Both teams have been playing good football this year and if Draxler was playing I would lean towards the side from Gelsenkirchen. But Dortmund, owing to the fact that they’re playing at home and given recent performances they do need the points more, get the nod because of greater squad depth.

Dortmund 2-1 Schalke 04

Where can you watch it : NeoPrime When: Saturday, 1900hrs

Elsewhere

Bayern travel to Dusseldorf to face Fortuna Dusseldorf. Bayern have been perfect this term with seven wins out of seven, and while Eintracht Frankfurt are stealing all the limelight among the newcomers Dusseldorf are doing quite well sitting in 7th with 10 points. They have one of the best defensive records in the league, second only to Bayern with 3 goals conceded, but have only scored 6 goals, four of which came from Dani Schahin. This match could mark the return of David Alaba at left-back, injured in a pre-season friendly against Napoli, the Austrian scored one and assisted two other in a world cup qualifier against Kazakhstan. Also if Bayern do manage to win, which they really should, they would set a new record for consecutive wins at the start of the season.

Where can you watch it: NeoSports When: Saturday, 1900hrs