At one point this season it looked as though Dortmund’s main objective may be just to challenge for a Champions League spot after a poor start to their Bundesliga campaign.
However, back-to-back victories over Wolfsburg and RB Leipzig look to have fired BVB back into the fight for the German top-flight title.
Borussia Dortmund now heads into Saturday afternoon’s home match with Mainz five points behind league leaders Bayern Munich.
That point gap may have seemed relatively big in previous seasons when Bayern were in outstanding form. However, the Bavarians recent form has been underwhelming and they do not look like the same dominant team of recent years.
The return from injury of Norwegian international Erling Haaland has been a key to their last two wins. The youngster scored a brace last time out to take his goal tally to 35 goals in 35 Bundesliga appearances, matching the record of legendary German striker Gerd Muller.
Haaland’s return seems to have also spurred English starlet Jadon Sancho into action, as the winger has now scored in his last two league appearances. The pair will fancy their chances against a Mainz team who are bottom of the Bundesliga table.
The visitors recently changed head coach with Bo Svensson coming in as a replacement for Jan-Moritz Lichte. The 41-year-old is the club's third coach of the campaign. He certainly has a big job on his in his debut campaign as a Bundesliga boss.
The bottom club lost their first game under Svensson last time out when they suffered a 2-0 home defeat in the local derby against Eintracht Frankfurt. The game saw Mainz fail to score for the fourth time in five Bundesliga outings.
Forebet predicts that Mainz will score at Signal Iduna Park, but will suffer defeat in a high-scoring clash to add to their problems. The win could well put the home side right back in the title race.