Two teams that are coming off unsuccessful results in their last matches are clashing against each other on Saturday, April 22nd, when Borussia Dortmund will be hosted by Borussia Gladbach. Gladbach are coming off a harsh 3-5 defeat against Hoffenheim last week, that kept them outside the top 6 spots, while Dortmund are coming off a 1-3 loss to Monaco mid-week, that put an end to their Champions League run, as they were eliminated at the quarter-finals of the competition.
Dortmund (15-6-8) are coming into this match after a dissappointing loss to Monaco that left them eliminated from the remainder of the Champions League. They had suffered a 3-2 loss at home in the first leg, after the “bomb-on-the-bus” ordeal that postponed the match to the next day. They traveled to France in hopes of overturning that result, but they were down by 2 goals by the 17th minute. They did manage to cut their opponent’s lead down to one goal at the 48th minute, but Monaco scored the 3rd goal at the 81st minute to record a spectacular qualification to the Champions League semi-finals. Prior to that, they had recorded a 1-3 win against Frankfurt for the league, as they are now sitting at the 4th spot of the Bundesliga with 53 points. They are sitting at the spot that grants entrance to the Champions League qualifiers, but they will want to move up to the spots that grant automatic entrance to the Champions League group stage. This is more than do-able, as they are just a single point behind the 3rd placed Hoffenheim, and 8 points behind Leipzig, with 5 more matches to go. Even though they have just a 4-6-5 record on the road, it’s good enough to be the 4th best road record in the league. They haven’t had much luck in their last 9 road matches in all competitions, as they only won 2 of them (2-5-2), keeping just 2 clean sheets in the process. They will be coming into this match with their usualy absences, as Bartra, Gotze, Larsen, Rode and Schurrle are still unavailable, while Mor is still listed as questionable to participate.
On the other hand, Gladbach (11-12-6) suffered a very bad defeat in their last match, as they were engaged in the most exciting match of the league. They were hosted by Hoffenheim, as they saw their opponents take an early 2-goal lead by the 24th minute, but they managed to pull even before the first half was over. However, Hoffenheim took another 2-goal lead by the 75th minute, before Gladbach scored their 3rd goal at the 78th minute, trying to steal a point. Even so, the hosts sealed the deal with a goal at the 89th minute for the final 3-5. That loss came to put an end to Gladbach’s 4 match undefeated streak (2-0-2). They are now sitting at the 9th spot of the Bundesliga with 39 points, just 2 points behind the 6th placed Freiburg, and 4 points behind the 5th Hertha Berlin. They have been rather solid at home so far (7-4-3), where they have won just 2 of their last 6 matches in all competitions (2-3-1). They haven’t been very steady at home lately, as they have only kept 3 clean sheets in their last 16 matches as hosts. They were recently eliminated from the Europa League by fellow Germans Schalke, but they moved on to the German Cup semi-finals, where they are up aganst Frankfurt. Gladbach will be coming into this match with a few absences, as Johnson, Kramer and Raffael are all still unavailable, while Nicolas and Jantschke are still listed as questionable to participate.