The Revierderby takes centre stage in the Bundesliga this weekend as arch-rivals Schalke 04 and Borussia Dortmund lock horns at Veltins-Arena on Saturday.
The old foes find themselves at opposite ends of the Bundesliga table, with second-placed Dortmund leading second-bottom Schalke by 30 points.
Full focus on the derby 🔜 pic.twitter.com/qh4t6fFznn— Borussia Dortmund (@BlackYellow) March 8, 2023
Full focus on the derby 🔜 pic.twitter.com/qh4t6fFznn
That said, form often goes out the window when these two sides meet, so they are destined to dish up an intriguing battle in Gelsenkirchen.
When Schalke suffered 10 defeats in 11 Bundesliga games between September and January, they looked destined to suffer relegation to the second tier.
However, the Royal Blues have given themselves a fighting chance of beating the drop in recent weeks, chalking up a six-game unbeaten run.
Following four consecutive goalless draws, Schalke claimed a 2-1 victory over VfB Stuttgart before beating Bochim 2-0 last time out.
Still, there is no hiding the fact that Schalke have only managed to win four of their 23 Bundesliga matches this season, recording seven draws and 12 losses.
As for Borussia Dortmund, they racked up 10 consecutive wins across all competitions directly after the winter break, enhancing their title prospects in the process.
BVB now find themselves level with table-topping Bayern Munich on 49 points after 23 games, with third-placed Union Berlin sitting five points below.
However, Dortmund’s winning streak was ended by a 2-0 defeat to Chelsea in midweek, with Edin Terzic’s side departing the Champions League in the last 16.
Despite Tuesday’s UCL elimination, Borussia Dortmund will be confident of returning to winning ways against relegation-threatened Schalke.
Head-to-head: Schalke have only managed to win two of their previous 14 Bundesliga meetings with Borussia Dortmund.
It is also worth noting that Dortmund have kept five successive clean sheets against Schalke, scoring 12 goals across four victories during that period.
Team news: Remarkably, Schalke could be without as many as 11 first-team players this weekend, with Sebastian Polter and Justin Heekeren out for the season.
Borussia Dortmund have injury problems of their own, with the attacking trio of Julian Brandt, Karim Adeyemi and Youssoufa Moukoko set to miss Saturday’s showdown.
When you couple the current gulf between Schalke and Dortmund in the Bundesliga table with BVB’s impressive recent record in this fixture, all the signs point towards an away win.
Forebet predicts that Borussia Dortmund will claim the Revierderby bragging rights this weekend, scoring over 1.5 goals while keeping a clean sheet.