SC Freiburg vs. Borussia Dortmund preview: The return of Nico Schlotterbeck
Nico Schlotterbeck will make his return to the club he left in the summer when Borussia Dortmund travel to the Europa-Park Stadion to face Freiburg on Friday.
SC Freiburg
Freiburg began the new Bundesliga season in style, with a comfortable 4-0 victory over Augsburg.
It proved to be a far more convincing performance than the penalty shootout win over Kaiserlautern in the first-round of the DFB-Pokal.
After playing out a goalless first half against Augsburg last weekend, Christian Streich's side took the lead through Michael Gregoritsch, who scored his first Freiburg goal against the side he left in the summer.
Vincenzo Grifo added a second before Matthis Gunter found the net after making his return to Freiburg this summer. There was still time for Ritsu Doan to net a fourth, ensuring last year's Pokal finalists got their Bundesliga campaign off to the best possible start.
However, they will face a step up in opposition this weekend when they play host to Borussia Dortmund. Although they can take inspiration from the fact that they have won their previous two home meetings against Dortmund in the Bundesliga.
Team News
Lucas Höler and Kevin Schade are out for the hosts with ankle and abdominal injuries respectively, while Kimberly Ezekwem and Lukas Kübler are also sidelined.
Borussia Dortmund
After thrashing 1860 Munich 3-0 in the first round of the DFB-Pokal, Dortmund opened their Bundesliga campaign with a home encounter against Bayer Leverkusen.
A 10th-minute strike from Marcos Reus proved enough to guide Die Schwarzgelben to a narrow 1-0 victory over Leverkusen, ensuring they have now won their opening league game of the season for the last eight years.
They will now head on their travels for their first Bundesliga away match of the season. Dortmund will hope that their away form at the end of last term carries over into the new campaign. Die Schwarzgelben ended the 2021-22 season with just one defeat in their last nine away games, while six of those contests resulted in a victory.
Dortmund will be looking to avoid a third consecutive defeat on matchday two, while they also lost the second league game of the season last term to Friday's opponents. Nico Schlotterbeck was on the winning side on that occasion, but after making 56 appearances for Freiburg, he will now be hoping to guide Dortmund to victory after leaving the Breisgau-Brasilianer in the summer.
Team News
Anthony Modeste is expected to make his debut for Dortmund after signing from FC Köln at the start of the week.
Meanwhile, Karim Adeyemi will miss out after a bruised toe forced him off in the first half against Leverkusen. Dortmund are also without Tom Rothe, Niklas Süle and Sebastien Haller.