On Saturday evening, Dortmund host Schalke at Signal Iduna Park in the latest instalment of the Revierderby in the Bundesliga.
Dortmund have enjoyed another decent start to their Bundesliga campaign, having won three of their four league matches this season.
A 2-0 defeat at Augsburg last month was their only blip in the German top-flight. However, BVB also heads into this clash on the back of a 3-1 defeat at Lazio in gameweek one of the Champions League.
Back in the Bundesliga, Dortmund’s defence has been pretty solid, keeping clean sheets in three of their four league games this season. The three goals conceded last time out in European football’s elite competition will be slightly concerning.
Lucien Favre’s team won their last two home games 3-0 against Monchengladbach and 4-0 against Freiburg. However, unlike recent seasons, BVB have a relatively inconsistent recent record at Signal Iduna Park as before the two straight wins, Dortmund had lost three of their previous four home matches in the Bundesliga.
Schalke are in a poor state after picking up just one point from their opening four league games. A 1-1 home draw against Union Berlin last time out at least ended a three-game losing run at the start of the new campaign.
The defeats in the first two league games of the season saw the exit of head coach David Wagner. His successor Manuel Baum will need to start to pick up results and quick to move his team away from the relegation zone.
The Royal Blues have been poor travellers of late in the German top-flight, having failed to win in their last 13 away games, suffering four consecutive away defeats too.
Forebet predicts that Dortmund will record a relatively comfortable victory in a high-scoring derby clash.