Hamburger SV vs Borussia Dortmund Prediction - Will The Rothosen Defy Dortmund's Favouritism?

Next Saturday, 7th of March 2015, a rejuvenated Borussia Dortmund will travel to the Imtech Arena to measure forces with Hamburger SV for round 24 of the Bundesliga, on a match between two former European champions that, for distinct reasons, are having a season to forget so far.

After a solid and well deserved win at the Revierderby against Schalke 04 last weekend, Dortmund continued winning after their last Tuesday’s Pokal match with Dynamo Dresden. The historical GDR super team (currently on the third tier of German football) put up a very decent resistance but ended up sucumbing at the hands of a fairly more experienced team that managed to take advantage from some of Dynamo’s childish defensive mistakes.

Dortmund have won five of their last six matches and their last Saturday’s win against their neighbours and rivals of Schalke 04 was certainly an injection of extra motivation to face the almost insurmountable obstacles that are yet to come for them. On that particular match, Dortmund have only sealed their win on the last 15 minutes of the match, with goals from Aubameyang, Mkhitarian and Marco Reus.

Der BVB seem to be a completely different team now; apart from the blatantly obvious high confidence levels, their game is fairly more fluid and the pressure they apply on their opponents during the build up process is definitely now more intense.

The upcoming fixture against Hamburger SV will certainly not be an easy one, especially if we have in mind what happened last term, when Dortmund were heavily defeated by 3-0, and if we think about the Rothosen win at Westfalenstadion earlier this season. For the next Saturday’s match, Jürgen Klopp is not yet certain if he will be able to rely on the contribution Marco Reus, who was substituted during the Pokal’s clash against Dynamo Dresden due to injury.

As for Hamburger SV, the heavy 8-0 defeat against the all-powerful Bayern Munich opened some deep wounds in the team and, since that match, they have only secured one point from the two games they have taken part in. Hamburger SV are breathing with difficulty down in the Bundesliga table, just one point above the pits of relegation zone.

The Rothosen tend to be fairly more intense when playing at home and they will certainly do everything within their reach to return to wins against Dortmund, although, they are surely aware that it will be a Herculean task to defeat such a motivated team as BVB.

Because of their excellent recent improvements, it is fair to point Dortmund as firm favourites for next Saturday’s match.

Hamburger SV

Stats: W-2 L-2 D-1

Recent Form - LDLWW

Borussia Dortmund

Stats: W-4 L-1 D-0

Recent Form - WWLWW

Possible Line-ups

Hamburger SV (4-2-3-1) - Drobny - Diekmeier - Djourou - Rajkovic- Westermann - Jiracek - Kacar - Müller - Gouaida - Stieber - Rudnevs

Borussia Dortmund (4-2-3-1) - Weidenfeller - Ginter - Subotic - Hummels - Schmelzer - Sahin - Gundogan - Mkhitaryan - Kagawa  - Aubameyang - Immobile

Prediction

Hamburger SV 0 Borussia Dortmund 2