Borussia Dortmund vs Mainz - Will Der BVB Continue Their Great Moment against Mainz?

Next Saturday, Borussia Dortmund will measure forces with Mainz at an always packed Westfalenstadion for round 31 of Bundesliga on a very important match for the home side if they want to keep their Ruhr neighbours - Schalke 04 - at bay in the battle for the second place of the table.

After last weekend’s impressive win at the Allianz Arena against the all-powerful Bayern Munich, Jurgen Klopp’s Dortmund received the extra motivation they needed to end the season in a proper manner after their inconsistent campaign this term. Borussia Dortmund surprised Pep Guardiola’s side with quick and effective counter-attacks and benefited from an inspired Armenian playmaker, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who contributed with the team’s first goal and prepared the second one for Marco Reus.

Last week’s match against Real Madrid has certainly worked as a motivational tonic for Borussia Dortmund’s rest of the season. The team managed to erase from the supporters’ minds (and from their own minds too), the poor display at Santiago Bernabéu, and failed to eliminate the Spanish giants due to sheer bad luck.

Next Saturday’s match against Mainz will surely not be an easy task for Dortmund. Their opponents are having a very positive season and last weekend they trashed Werder Bremen at home by a conclusive 3-0.

For the clash against Mainz, Jurgen Klopp will still not be able to count on Schmelzer, Subotic, Gundogan, Blaszczykowski, and Bender all of them sidelined due to injury.

As for Mainz, the Nullfünfer are having a very positive season so far and they are currently at the seventh place of Bundesliga table one point behind Bayer Leverkusen and two behind Borussia Moenchengladbach. Last weekend, Thomas Tuchel’s side easily past an uninspired Werder Bremen and obtained an easy and important 3-0 win after being defeated at Frankfurt two weeks ago.

From January to mid March, Mainz have probably enjoyed their best moment this season, as the Rhineland-Palatinate side was only defeated once in eight matches. However, from that moment onwards, the team collected three defeats in five matches and are now looking to reacquire their confidence and motivational levels for what’s left of the season.

For next Saturday’s match, Thomas Tuchel will probably not be able to count on the South Korean defender Park Joo-Ho, on the German midfielder Nicolai Müller and on the Austrian midfielder Julian Baumgartlinger, who are still recovering from their recent injuries.

When both sides met at Coface Arena back in November, the visitors gave no chance to Mainz as they won 3-1 with two goals from Robert Lewandowski and one from Aubameyang. It seems very likely that history will repeat itself next Saturday, especially if one consider the excellent moment Borussia Dortmund are going through and the recent inconsistent form of their opponents.

Borussia Dortmund

Stats: W-18 L-7 D-4

Recent Form - WDWWW

Mainz

Stats: W-14 L-11 D-5

Recent Form - LLWLW

Possible Line-ups

Borussia Dortmund (4-2-3-1) – Weidenfeller - Piszczek - Hummels - Sokratis - Kehl - Grosskreutz - Sahin - Reus - Mkhitaryan - Hofmann - Lewandowski

Mainz (4-2-3-1) – Karius - Pospech - Bungert - Noveski - Diaz - Soto - Geis - Malli - Moritz - Choupo-Moting - Okazaki

Prediction: Borussia Dortmund 2 Mainz 0