Hertha Berlin are coming off an unexpected loss to Hamburg in their last match, proving yet again that they are not very strong on the road. However, they are much better at home, where they will be hosting Dortmund on Saturday, who qualified to the quarter-finals of the Champions League on Tuesday, and they might be bringing some momentum here.
Hertha Berlin (11-8-4) were below average in their trip to Hamburg, where they were defeated by the local team by 0-1. They were unable to threaten their opponents throughout the first half, and they seemed happy with the slow tempo. However, their opponents had a different approach, as they scored the winning goal at the 77th minute. That match was a blatant piece of evidence that Hertha struggle a lot on the road (2-7-3), but they still remained at he 5th spot of the Bundesliga with 37 points, just 4 behind the 4th. They still remain alive at the chase of a top 4 finish that grants entrance to the Champions League, and that is mostly thanks to their strong home ground, where they have scored in 10 of their 11 matches so far in the season, and have been beaten just once (9-1-1). They will be coming into this match with several absences, as besides their long-injured, Scheibert, Lustenberger and Kurt are also highly unlikely to participate.
On the other hand, Dortmund (12-4-7) were dominant in their last match, as they overcame Benfica by 0-4 at home, and moved on to the quarter-finals of the competition. Besides the very important qualification, this victory came to continue Dortmund’s scary recent streak, as they have won their last 4 matches, scoring a whopping 16 goals in the process. They have the 2nd most productive offense in the league with 52 goals scored, as they are sitting at the 3rd spot with 43 points. They have a mediocre record on the road so far (4-4-4), but they also feature the best road offense with 24 goals so far. However, they also tend to concede a lot on the road, as they have only kept a single clean sheet in their last 9. They will be coming into this match with quite a few absences themselves, as Bender, Rode, Gotze and Reus remain sidelined with injuries.