(Football news) The 100th Bundesliga meeting between Borussia Dortmund and city rivals Schalke 04 takes centre stage as they meet at the Veltins-Arena. The first derby was played way back in 1925 as the latest Revierderby sees the home side scraping for survival while the visitors have ambitions of beating Bayern Munich to the title. This is one of the most keenly anticipated fixtures on the Bundesliga calendar as Schalke’s rivalry with Dortmund stretches back through the decades, but the Gelsenkirchen club have endured a dismal losing streak against their old nemesis.
Schalke have lost each of their last four Revierderbies which is subsequently their worst run since the 1960s. The Gelsenkirchen club’s most recent home game against BVB saw them lose 4-0 as they equaled the club’s heaviest home defeat to Dortmund in the Bundesliga and were then relegated a few months later. Both teams are separated by 32 kms with both clubs situated in the Ruhr region, but both the clubs are on different ends of the table. That success in 2021 is still Edin Terzic’s biggest Bundesliga away win, and he could now become only the second BVB coach ever to win his first three Revierderbies in the league.
Die Schwarzgelben saw Julian Brandt go off injured in their 2-0 Champions League defeat to Chelsea. With dreams of European glory extinguished, Dortmund will focus on domestic duty as they are in their best form of the season, and have won eight straight Bundesliga games for only the third time in the club’s history.
The Ruhr valley club are level on points with Bayern Munich at the top of the table as they saw off potential title challengers RB Leipzig, thanks to goals from Marco Reus and Emre Can. They had won each of their last three away fixtures without conceding a single goal, something that they managed back in 1999. Dortmund will look to bounce back from Tuesday night’s setback and defeat their city rivals for the ninth time in a row.
Schalke 04 possible starting lineup:
Fahrmann; Brunner, Yoshida, Jenz, Matriciani; Kral, Krauss; Zalazar, Bulter, Mohr; Frey
Borussia Dortmund possible starting lineup:
Meyer; Wolf, Sule, Schlotterbeck, Ryerson; Ozcan, Can, Bellingham; Reyna, Haller, Reus
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