Second-from-bottom Arminia Bielefeld welcome second-from-top Borussia Dortmund to the Schuco-Arena in the Bundesliga on Saturday.
The hosts are still looking for their first league win of the campaign, whilst the visitors are looking to keep the pressure on reigning champions Bayern Munich at the top of the table.
Match preview
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Last weekend's draw at Augsburg means it is now eight matches without a win in the Bundesliga for Bielefeld at the start of the new campaign, which leaves them in 17th place heading into the weekend.
The newly-promoted Greuther Furth are the only other winless side in the division heading into matchday nine, who are also the only side placed below Die Schwarzgelben in the league table.
After finishing the 2020-21 campaign with just a single defeat in their final eight games, boss Frank Kramer led his side to successive stays in the top flight, courtesy of a two-point advantage above the relegation playoff place.
However, Bielefeld have failed to carry that end-of-season form into 2021-22 so far, although one thing that has remained consistent is the lack of activity in the final third of the pitch.
Finishing last season as the second-lowest scorers with just 26 goals from their 34 fixtures, this weekend's hosts have managed to net just four from the opening eight matches this time around, which is the joint-lowest in the Bundesliga along with last weekend's opponents Augsburg.
Jacob Laursen was the saviour who finally netted again last week, his side's first in four matches, which earned Bielefeld a hard-fought point in a low-key affair with their fellow strugglers.
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As for the visitors, a positive return from the international break in the league was followed by a humiliation in Europe in midweek.
The 3-1 home success against a stubborn Mainz 05 side has lifted BVB to second in the table heading into this weekend's trip to Bielefeld, with Erling Braut Haaland's brace on his return from injury making sure of the points to avoid a potentially nervy finish at Signal Iduna Park.
However, Dortmund's problem over recent years has been consistency, and following that victory up with a 4-0 thrashing at the hands of Ajax in Amsterdam in midweek was another example of it.
Although the Black and Yellows had won their two previous group stage matches in the Champions League so far this season, the result means that Marco Rose's side are still struggling to put together a consistent run of results in order to gain momentum and confidence ahead another potential title push.
As mentioned above, consistency has hindered Dortmund's title challenges in recent years, and away matches such as the one facing them on Saturday are the type of fixtures that they have slipped up in in the years gone by.
Nothing other than a victory will do if they are to keep up with the devastating form of champions Bayern, and anything like the two comfortable wins achieved over Bielefeld last season will do nicely in order to bounce back from the awful result in the week.
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Team News
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The hosts head into Saturday's fixture with concerns over two players as things stand, with Patrick Wimmer and Andres Andrade unlikely to feature just yet.
Wimmer was replaced at half time against Augsburg last week after previously struggling with a groin injury, and a return for him is not expected until next month.
Andrade has barely featured yet this season, with hamstring problems keeping him out at the moment, but Sebastian Vasiliadis looks set to return and could make his first appearance for his new side.
Meanwhile, Dortmund are set to be without defenders Raphael Guerreiro, Mateu Morey and Marcel Schmelzer again at the weekend.
Giovanni Reyna and Youssoufa Moukoko are also ruled out for the visitors, with Mahmoud Dahoud still struggling with a knee injury and being listed as a doubt as a result.
That means very few, if any, changes are expected to the starting lineup yet again, so Julian Brandt is likely to join Axel Witsel and Jude Bellingham in midfield, behind a front three of Haaland, Donyell Malen and Marco Reus.
Arminia Bielefeld possible starting lineup:
Ortega; Brunner, Pieper, Nilsson, Laursen; Fernandes, Prietl, Kunze; Schopf; Hack, Klos
Borussia Dortmund possible starting lineup:
Kobel; Meunier, Akanji, Hummels, Schulz; Bellingham, Witsel, Brandt; Reus; Haaland, Malen
We say: Arminia Bielefeld 0-2 Borussia Dortmund
A comfortable away victory should be on the cards here on Saturday, with the quality possessed by Dortmund in comparison to their hosts Bielefeld.
Despite the shaky defending on show from the visitors, it is difficult to see where the goals will be coming from for the hosts, so a win-to-nil is a likely outcome for BVB.
Top tip
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Borussia Dortmund win with a probability of 67.7%. A draw had a probability of 18.7% and a win for Arminia Bielefeld had a probability of 13.55%.
The most likely scoreline for a Borussia Dortmund win was 0-2 with a probability of 11.16%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 0-1 (10.11%) and 1-2 (9.78%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (8.85%), while for an Arminia Bielefeld win it was 1-0 (4.01%). The actual scoreline of 1-3 was predicted with a 7.2% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Borussia Dortmund would win this match.
