Leverkusen vs Dortmund Prediction, Betting Tips & Preview

Preview

Haydn Cunningham Feb 15, 2016 @ 05:39 pm

Darmstadt almost caused an upset against Bayer Leverkusen on Saturday after going into the half time interval with a goal advantage. However, an own goal and a winner from Julien Brandt gave Leverkusen a vital 3 points that keeps them top of the ‘table’ outside of Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund. Leverkusen noticeably struggled with the absence of Javier Hernandez who has been sensational in his debut season in German football. The former Manchester United forward has scored 13 league goals this season and Leverkusen’s next highest scorer is Stefan Kiessling who has just 4 league goals all year. Leverkusen have the 2^nd best defensive in the league and will they’ll need to be on their game again as they welcome Borussia Dortmund to the BayArena who’ve fired in the same amount of goals (53) as Bayern Munich have in 21 Bundesliga games.

It was a similar story for Dortmund in their narrow victory over struggling Hannover. Despite being rock bottom and losing a mammoth 15 of 21 league games, Hannover kept the score down to a respectable 1-0 defeat although it was always a case of how many Dortmund would get. Dortmund desperately missing Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang upfront and Marco Reus didn’t have the same influence without his colleague. Other than the Gabon international being out with a minor injury Dortmund had a full strength squad and Thomas Tuchel will be slightly concerned his side couldn’t make the breakthrough more than they did. His absence was believed to be for the Europa League 1^stleg match they have this Thursday at home to Porto which is certainly one of the biggest spectacles in the knockout stages of the Europa League.

Leverkusen won’t be looking at the past meetings at the BayArena for any confidence as they haven’t beaten Dortmund at home since 2007. That includes 8 games they’ve remained winless with Dortmund winning 3 and the other 5 being draws. The away side haven’t lost since the 19^th December last year and will be looking to carry that momentum into one of their toughest games of the season. Despite being 8 points off Bayern Munich, Dortmund have a healthy 13 point gap over Leverkusen and defeat for the home side would virtually guarantee Dortmund a runners up spot in the Bundesliga this season.

Javier Hernandez will be face a few weeks on the side lines with a muscular injury sustained in the shock 3-1 defeat to Werder Bremen in the DFB Pokal. He scored his 22^nd in all competitions in the defeat but Roger Schmidt will now be without his talisman for the Europa League 1^st leg and the league match against Dortmund. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is expected to be fit for the Leverkusen encounter but a lot rests on how he comes through the Europa League game against Porto on Thursday evening.

Bayer Leverkusen

Stats: W-10 L-6 D-5

Recent Form – WLDWD

Borussia Dortmund

Stats: W-15 L-3 D-3                                          

Recent Form - WWDWW

Head-to-head record:

Possible Line-ups

Leverkusen (4-4-2) –  Leno, Wendell, Toprak, Tah, Jedvaj, Mehmedi, Frey, Kampl, Bellerabi, Kiessling, Brandt

Dortmund (4-2-3-1) – Burki, Piszczek, Subotic, Hummels, Schmelzer, Gundogan, Ginter, Kagawa, Mkhitaryan, Reus, Aubameyang

Injury List/Suspended Players

Bayer Leverkusen – Hernandez (inj), Kramer (inj), Bender (inj)

Borussia Dortmund – Bender (inj), Sahin (inj)

League Positions