Borussia Dortmund vs. Hoffenheim: Team News, Preview, Live Stream, TV Info
Borussia Dortmund host 1899 Hoffenheim on Matchday 23 of the 2015/16 Bundesliga season in Signal Iduna Park on Sunday.
Dortmund are coming off a somewhat lucky 1-0 win over FC Porto on Thursday but didn't have to give it their all in the return leg of their UEFA Europa League round-of-32 tie. The second-half performance especially showed the Black and Yellows took their foot off the gas.
With the club in the midst of a stretch of six weeks with midweek fixtures on the schedule, however, it'll be interesting to see how serious they take Sunday's visitors.
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Hoffenheim are second to last in the league but have won four points in their two games since appointing Julian Nagelsmann as head coach. The youngest coach in the history of the Bundesliga, at just 28 years of age, took over from Huub Stevens earlier in February, as the Dutchman had to retire because of health concerns.
Their win over FSV Mainz last time out was only the third league victory of the entire campaign for the club from south-west Germany. They've taken all three points on just one road trip all season, beating FC Augsburg 3-1 in September.
In the teams' earlier meeting this season, Dortmund dropped points for the first time under head coach Thomas Tuchel after 11 wins on the spin across competitions, as Hoffenheim held them to a 1-1 draw.
Sunday's visitors have won once in seven tries at the Westfalenstadion, with that win coming in May 2013. That's also the last time they were victorious in this fixture in general.
Date: Sunday, February 28
Time: 4:30 p.m. GMT/11:30 a.m. ET/5:30 p.m. local time
Venue: Signal Iduna Park, Dortmund
TV Info: BT Sport Europe (UK only)/Fox Soccer Plus (U.S. only)
Live Stream: BT Sport live streaming (UK only)/Fox Soccer 2Go (U.S. only)
Form Guide
| Dortmund | Hoffenheim |
| Stuttgart: Win (3-1) | Leverkusen: Draw (1-1) |
| Hannover: Win (1-0) | Bayern: Loss (2-0) |
| Porto: Win (2-0) | Darmstadt: Loss (2-0) |
| Leverkusen: Win (1-0) | Bremen: Draw (1-1) |
| Porto: Win (1-0) | Mainz: Win (3-2) |
Predicted Lineups
Dortmund
Head coach Thomas Tuchel used the comfortable position his side found themselves in at half-time in midweek—the aggregate score was 3-0—to give Mats Hummels and Ilkay Gundogan a rest, while Marco Reus also didn't hear the final whistle from the pitch.
However, Hummels said after the game he suffered a minor injury to his hip flexor, adding, "if it had been the final, I would have played through it," per the club's official website. Dortmund will obviously err on the side of caution with Hummels.
The same goes for Lukasz Piszczek, who missed the game after experiencing muscle stiffness. He said: "I hope everything will be OK for Sunday, but we certainly won’t be taking any risks."
Not a lot of rotation is expected elsewhere for the Black and Yellows. The Porto game wasn't all that strenuous, and the forthcoming trip to SV Darmstadt and their horrible pitch on Wednesday looks like a better spot to rest key players before Bayern Munich come to town three days later.
Predicted Starting XI: Roman Burki; Matthias Ginter, Neven Subotic, Sven Bender, Marcel Schmelzer; Ilkay Gundogan, Nuri Sahin, Julian Weigl; Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Marco Reus.
Hoffenheim
Nagelsmann doesn't have a particular formation he likes his teams play; he's a coach who adjusts his lineups to the opponent. With that in mind, it seems likely Hoffenheim will have an aggressive approach, pressing Dortmund high up the pitch. They don't have anything to lose playing at the second-best team in German football.
The 28-year-old told sport magazine Kicker recently they'll have to try not to offer Dortmund spaces and to keep the speed of BVB's attackers in check. That's easier said than done, of course.
It helps that the entire squad apart from winger Tarik Elyounoussi should be available. Nagelsmann's lineup will tell fans a lot about Hoffenheim's approach.
Predicted Starting XI: Oliver Baumann; Pavel Kaderabek, Niklas Sule, Fabian Schar, Philipp Ochs; Sebastian Rudy, Tobias Strobl, Nadiem Amiri; Kevin Volland, Andrej Kramaric and Mark Uth.
Players to Watch
If Hummels, as expected, doesn't play, Sven Bender will have to pick up the slack. The 26-year-old's successful transformation from defensive midfielder to centre-back was recently noted by Squawka's Lewis Ambrose: "As the last line of defence, he’s taken more responsibility for the team and excelled."
As the tweet from WhoScored.com below shows, Bender was impressive in midweek:
However, his positive showings at centre-half have come when playing next to Hummels, not instead of the team captain. It remains to be seen how he'll handle being the main centre-back option in buildup play with Neven Subotic likely to slide in next to him.
Tuchel could help Bender out by playing Nuri Sahin as a deep-lying midfielder to facilitate Dortmund's buildup.
As for Hoffenheim, Mark Uth's brace against Mainz paved the way to three vital points. The 24-year-old attacker has had an interesting career, moving to SC Heerenveen in the Eredivisie in 2012 after failing to break through at hometown club FC Cologne.
Hoffenheim bought him for €2.2 million in the summer, according to Transfermarkt, but he had yet to make much of an impact before last week; those goals against Mainz were only his second and third in the league, and they came in only his fifth start.
Still, with his side gasping for goals—they've only scored 22, the third-worst record in the Bundesliga—Uth will hope his last performance was only the beginning.
Key Battle
Henrikh Mkhitaryan vs. Philipp Ochs
Eighteen-year-old Philipp Ochs is one of the big winners from the coaching change in Hoffenheim. Having made only two substitute appearances this season before Nagelsmann took over, he's started both games under the new manager.
A versatile winger, he played as left wing-back in the draw at Werder Bremen, when Hoffenheim lined up in a 3-5-2, and at left-back in the win over Mainz.
He is set to go through a baptism of fire at Dortmund on Sunday, with the terrific Henrikh Mkhitaryan his likely matchup. The Armenian's impressive numbers this season—18 goals and 22 assists across all competitions, per Transfermarkt—have been well-documented, and he's made far more experienced players than Ochs look hopeless.
As Kicker's Michael Pfeifer noted, Ochs missed training sessions ahead of the game because of a school project. Assignments don't get much tougher than Mkhitaryan.
Odds (via Odds Shark)
Dortmund: 20-87
Draw: 143-25
Hoffenheim: 234-25
Lars Pollmann is a Featured Columnist writing on Borussia Dortmund. He also writes for YellowWallPod.com. You can follow him on Twitter.
