Stuttgart vs. Dortmund preview: VfB look to avoid three straight league losses
Dortmund travel south to face Stuttgart on Saturday in a match between two of the current top four sides in the Bundesliga table.
| Photo: Jeollo, Vfb-exklusiv.de, CC BY-SA 3.0 |
Stuttgart
Stuttgart have lost their last two league matches to Hoffenheim and Heidenheim, but still sit impressively in 3rd. They are badly missing Serhou Guirassy up front and there’s a chance he won’t be ready for Matchday 11.
Dan-Axel Zagadou has been impressive of late and will have extra motivation playing against his former club on the weekend. If Guirassy can’t play, the attack will run through the trio of Chris Führich, Silas, and Deniz Undav who have combined for 10 league goals thus far.
When asked about BVB, Sebastian Hoeneß said, “Dortmund are top of a difficult Champions League group and have been consistent in the league, notwithstanding last weekend. I’m expecting to face opponents who want to head into the international break with a victory.”
Team News
Stuttgart are waiting to see whether Guirassy and Pascal Stenzel will be fit enough on Saturday, as a decision will be made closer to kickoff. All signs point to Josha Vagnoman featuring in the squad.
Dortmund
After a brutal 4-0 beatdown by Bayern that could have been even worse, BVB roared back to life with a 2-0 win over Newcastle midweek to take command of their brutal Champions League group. Dortmund have only lost two competitive games this year and seem to be heading in a fairly positive direction.
However, they still sit seven points behind league leaders Leverkusen and need to start consistently picking up points to keep pace. It doesn’t look like Niclas Füllkrug will be giving the starting no. 9 spot back to Sebastian Haller anytime soon, as he’s really starting to form a nice connection with Felix Nmecha and Julian Brandt.
In his presser, Edin Terzic mentioned, "We know about the quality in our squad. We played a really great game against Newcastle on Tuesday. A new task awaits us tomorrow. - We want to do everything we can to make sure it's a tough task for Stuttgart too."
Team News
Julian Duranville, Emre Can, and Mateu Morey will miss out on the action.