Can Dortmund keep pushing Bayern?
On match day 20 of the German Bundesliga , SV Werder Bremen meets Borussia Dortmund . While the hosts want to consolidate in the middle of the league, Borussia are still in the title race.
In the table, the Dortmund team, as the current third leader, is trailing FC Bayern (3 points behind) and Union Berlin (2 points behind). Behind them, RB Leipzig, Eintracht Frankfurt and SC Freiburg are already competing for the coveted European Cup places - or even for the cup? One thing is certain, the outcome of this year's Bundesliga season hasn't been as open as this year for a long time.
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Werder Bremen analysis
The starting position of the Bundesliga promoted is not the worst. The green-whites from Bremen are currently in the excellent 8th place in the table with 27 points and are only two points behind Vfl Wolfsburg. The distance to the European Cup places 1 to 6 is a bit clearer, the gap to sixth-placed SC Freiburg is already 7 points. Werder are anything but safe from behind , Gladbach (1 point) and Leverkusen (2 points) are breathing down Bremen's neck. It is important for Ole Werner's team to consolidate in the middle of the table and to keep the pursuers at a distance as much as possible.
The Bremen team came out of the winter break extremely badly and completely missed the start of the second half of the season. The 7-1 away defeat at 1.FC Koln joined the less than glorious list of the heaviest Bundesliga defeats ever. The Bremen defense in particular had a pitch-black evening, almost every attack by Cologne ended with a goal. Werder coach Ole Werner then found the right words and turned crucial buttons. Because in the next round against Union Berlin, his team showed a completely different face . Although Bremen lost 2-1 to the title contenders from the capital, they showed morale and fought a bitter fight.
Borussia Dortmund analysis
Borussia from Dortmund presented itself in impressive form recently and is therefore considered by many to be an insider tip for this year's championship title. Coach Edin Terzic's team celebrated four wins in a row and celebrated a brilliant 5-1 home win against their direct competitor from Freiburg last week.
Edin Terzic faces a luxury problem. The 40-year-old is spoiled for choice in attack. Only one striker can prove himself in the 4-2-3-1 system preferred by Terzic , although Dortmund have three top-class players up front. First, young star Youssoufa Moukoko outperformed old master Antony Modeste, scored 6 goals in the fall and was finally rewarded with a long-term, highly paid contract.
Then the regular assault tank Sebastien Haller celebrated his much-acclaimed comeback after his cancer– and pushed Moukoko back out of the starting XI. The Frenchman justified Terzic's confidence and scored his first goal in the black and yellow jersey against SC Freiburg. It is to be hoped that the chemistry within the team will remain reasonably consistent - if so, Terzic has several weapons sitting on the bench.
Another reason for Dortmund's current high is Karim Adeyemi . The ex-Salzburger and DFB team player, who was signed by Red Bull Salzburg for more than 30 million in the summer, is finding his way on the flank better and better, scored his first goal for black and yellow against Leverkusen – and scored against him a week later SC Freiburg a little further. Conspicuous in Dortmund is the almost even distribution of goal scorers and assist providers. Whether Moukouko, Brandt, Reina, Bellingham or Guerreiro– almost every Dortmunder can become a fire hazard at any time.
This strong collective poses major problems for the opponents again and again. After a minor slump in November, Edin Terzic's team recently celebrated 4 wins in a row. The 5-1 against table neighbor Freiburg was not just an exclamation mark, but a clear announcement in the direction of the eternal rival from Munich. One would like to have a serious say about the title this year.
Werder Bremen - Borussia Dortmund: What to expect?
In order for that to succeed, there must be no more sloppiness towards the end of the season. A routine that Dortmunders know all too well. Too often they’ve messed up a race for the championship trophy in the last few meters, too often they acted too unfocused against the supposedly smaller teams. This happened, for example, at the end of August - of all things against the coming opponent Werder Bremen when Lee Buchanan, Niklas Schmidt and Oliver Burke turned a 0-2 deficit to a 3-2 victory in the last minutes of added time.
In Dortmund they want to have ticked off this painful event, but even if nobody has officially said it: black and yellow still have an unfinished business with Bremen. Borussia Dortmund is not only the clear favorite. The reason for this is not just the last impressive form of Borussia. The fact that Terzic has almost unlimited top choices to select makes us confident that our tip is correct.
In addition, Dortmund are still in the middle of the race for the championship title with 14 games to go before the end of the season – it would be the first for 11 years that fans in the Ruhrpott can secretly dream of. However, the fact that a victory for Dortmund is by no means set in stone is also proven by Bremen's two most recent victories, who will hit everything in front of their own audience in the Weser Stadium.
- Borussia Dortmund to win
- Over 2.5
* All odds and markets are correct at time of publication and subject to change.