A flawless performance against Werder Bremen secured Borussia Dortmund's second place for at least another week, and with an upcoming match against St Pauli, who are struggling at the bottom of the table, the Prussians are expected to continue their progress.
Borussia Dortmund are far from their best days, as evidenced by the large number of draws in recent months, but at least they are not losing games. Their only losses this season came at the hands of Bayern Munich, Manchester City, and Bayer Leverkusen, which is nothing surprising or shameful.
BVB remain the only team apart from Bayern without a home defeat in the Bundesliga, as well as the team with the best defence. Dortmund have conceded only four goals in their eight home games.
St Pauli ended the year in the best possible way given their limited resources, recording five consecutive games without defeat (W2, D3). However, their happiness was short-lived as they lost to Wolfsburg in their first game of the new year.
The Neighbourhood Kickers remain at the bottom of the table and have the weakest attack in the league, scoring only 14 times in 16 games.
More worryingly, they have not won a single game against a top 10 team this season, so the match against Borussia Dortmund is unlikely to bring them much joy.
How the bookies view it: Not in the same class
Bookmakers agree that there is a huge difference in class between the two teams and that we are likely to see a landslide result. That is why the odds are at two extremes.
Currently, you can back Borussia Dortmund at 3/10, while St Pauli are available at 9/1. A draw is always possible, although difficult to achieve, and it is available at 17/4.
Recent head-to-head: One of the games of the season
The reverse fixture between the two sides, which we saw at the start of the season, remains one of the games of the season, with St. Pauli managing to come back from 3-3 down.
This result is a real achievement for the visitors, who have only one win against Dortmund in their last 15 head-to-head matches. In comparison, BVB had 12 wins in this period.
Players to watch: Is Guirassy back?
Serhou Guirassy didn’t make the starting line-up against Werder Bremen and had to come on as a substitute in the late stages, but he still made an impact. The striker scored the final goal for the 3-0 win and ended his seven-match goal drought.
He needs to continue improving, and there isn’t a better team to do that against than St Pauli. Guirassy scored a goal in each of Dortmund’s last three fixtures against the Neighbourhood Kickers.
Probable line-ups
Borussia Dortmund: Kobel, Schlotterbeck, Anton, Bensebaini, Ryerson, Sabitzer, Nmecha, Couto, Brandt, Guirassy, Adeyemi
St Pauli: Vasilj, Mets, Wahl, Dzwigala, Pyrka, Sands, Fujita, Smith, Oppie, Lage, Kaars
Anything else catch the eye?
St Pauli produced one of their best performances of the season in the reverse fixture, but playing at Signal Iduna Park is a whole different challenge. While their form has improved and they have begun to score more, we don’t see it happening in Dortmund.
Surprisingly, bookmakers still offer good odds for a clean sheet, and we plan to take advantage.
When a price looks too good to ignore, that’s value. Learn how to identify it with our Value Betting guide.
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