a must must must win for us against Hannover96. there is no way we can let those 3 points slip through our fingers otherwise we have to question our attitude.

Hannover have lost their last 6 matches and coach Thomas Schaaf still seems not to have found the right way to motivate his boys.

Decesive will be as usual against such teams to score early and not allow to much space in our defensive line.

 

possible line-ups, a lot of injuries and question marks on Hannovers side:


Bürki - Piszczek, Sokratis, Hummels, Schmelzer - Weigl - Gündogan, Castro - H. Mkhitaryan, Reus - Aubameyang

Zieler - H. Sakai, Milosevic, Felipe, Prib - Gülselam, Schmiedebach, S. Sané - Karaman, Bech - A. Sobiech


This weekend's clash will serve as the 50th Bundesliga meeting between Dortmund and Hannover.

Dortmund have won 24 of the previous 49 encounters and emerged victorious in nine of the last 12, and boast a striker in Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang who enjoys playing Hannover.

Aubameyang has netted four times in four appearances versus Hannover and comes into the game having reached the 30-goal mark for the season in Dortmund's 3-1 DFB-Pokal win at Stuttgart on Tuesday.

Despite the quick turnaround from that fixture, coach Thomas Tuchel is not concerned about his Dortmund player's fitness.

Speaking after game at the Mercedes-Benz Arena, Tuchel said: "We knew that we had to put in a lot. We knew how strong Stuttgart are now, how passionately they can play. We also knew how difficult the pitch would be to play on.

"We knew we would have to push ourselves to our limits. The physical effort put in by both teams is to be emphasised. Now we need to recover with real professionalism and care. Then we will be at 100 per cent from the very first minute on Saturday."

Sven Bender is back in training for Dortmund following a knee injury, but it remains to be seen if he will be involved as Dortmund aim to put pressure on leaders Bayern Munich, who face Augsburg on Sunday and are eight points clear.


Key Opta stats:

- Hannover have only been in a worse position at this point of a Bundesliga campaign once before. In 1971-72 they also had 14 points (converted to three points for a win), but their goal difference was weaker.

- Dortmund have 25 points from their opening nine home games this term (joint club record) – a win this weekend would see them break the previous benchmark.

- Dortmund are unbeaten in 13 Bundesliga home games (W12, D1), scoring at least twice in each of those games – their best run since 1980-81 (14).

- Thomas Schaaf has lost on his last seven trips to Dortmund (For 2, Against 13). He's yet to claim a point as Hannover boss (three games) – his worst opening run as a Bundesliga boss.

 

A definitely must win game for us, we need more clean sheets from Burki so I'm gonna go with 2-0 win for us...

 

I also think it will be a 2-0 win or something like that. But if you recall the game against Ingolstadt two weeks ago, this has the potential to be another frustrating game for Dortmund. Watching that game, I was 100% convinced it would end in a 0-0 draw until Aubameyang stole the show. If Hannover put 11 men behind the ball as they probably will, I can see Dortmund struggling again. But if Dortmund score early then this could be a goal fest.

 

So the match against Hannover 96 will mark Gundogan's 100th Bundesliga match for Dortmund and there's no better way to celebrate that except with a victory. We'll have to try and score early unlike these past few games where we leave everything for the second half just like the match against Darmstadt....

 

It feels like he should have at least 150 by now.

 

Yeah unfortunately the injuries slowed him down....

 

His injuries destroyed his potential, he was among the top 5 players in the Bundesliga back in 2012 and in 2013. Now he is terribly inconsistent and is still nowhere near his previous form. Not to mention that he tried to leave the club on more than one occasion.

 

Surprisingly Subotic got a start after a long time...

 

I think the scariest thing in this game was how very close this came to ending in a 0-0 draw. Hannover didn't show much but Dortmund was disappointing, in particular Kagawa and Reus.

 

Yeah that was very close, I was expecting it to rain goals on Hannover 96 since they were not in good form coming to this match. But in the end I'm glad we got all 3 points...

 

not one of that fancy stuff on saturday against Hannover but very solid. We clearly missed those surprising moments and a real striker upfront, but ok we got the 3 points and now are 13 points ahead of spot 3.

Tuchel is giving some players the needed rests as if i am right, we will have 6 matches within the next 3 weeks and hence we need every player in match-shape. Subotic had a decent match imo and i even think his passing rate was much better than Hummels..

 

btw. PEA, WTF?!?!?!? :drunk::howler:

how can you wear such a vest, when knowing everyone in the stands will wear black/yellow? hilarious costume...

 

He looks like a pimp

 

Attention whore, that's the answer.

 

African prince.

 

Why Aubameyang did not play?

 

He had a minor injury, Tuchel wanted to keep him fresh for the upcoming game against Porto.