Borussia Dortmund to roll over Augsburg
Jose Breton-Pics Action / Shutterstock.com
Lucien Favre’s Borussia Dortmund got a big Bundesliga win against Bayer Leverkusen last weekend. The win once again gave Dortmund a three-point lead over second place Bayern Munich. On Friday night, Dortmund will travel to Augsburg to play the league’s 15th placed team.
Augsburg are fighting relegation with two points separating them and 16th place Stuttgart. Manager Manuel Baum watched his team lose 5-1 to Freiburg last weekend as they suffered a third straight loss.
Dortmund’s win over Bayer, a 3-2 shootout, ended a run of three consecutive draws. The yellow and black nearly let a late lead slip away – as they did against Hoffenheim – but they held their nerve during the last quarter of an hour. Forward Jadon Sancho continues to shine for Dortmund as he tallied his eighth goal and 12th assist in the Bundesliga. Sancho’s play has led to forward Christian Pulisic sitting on the sidelines. With Pulisic set for the exit in the summer, Dortmund have already found his replacement.
Favre will hope his team can continue to find goals at the Augsburg Arena. Dortmund lead the league in goals with 57 while conceding the second fewest (25). They have been suspect in defence in recent weeks. Dortmund have allowed seven goals in their last six games. Favre will have one eye on Dortmund’s midweek Champions League fixture against Tottenham. They are down 3-0 on aggregate and will need a big performance to overturn the tie.
Captain Marco Reus will finally return from a thigh injury on Friday night. Reus has missed the team’s last five games, which coincides with its run of poor form. Favre will have nearly an entire squad to choose from as only Pulisic will miss out due to a thigh injury.
Augsburg will be without centre-back Reece Oxford, who joined from West Ham on loan in January. Oxford was given a red card at the end of Augsburg’s humiliating loss to Freiburg a week ago. Luckily, Baum should have captain Daniel Baier and Andre Hahn back from injury. Unfortunately, Augsburg will be without top scorer Alfred Finnbogason, Jeffrey Gouweleeuw, Marco Richter, and Jan Moravek. Augsburg desperately need a big defensive performance after conceding 16 goals in their last six Bundesliga games.
Dortmund have won 10 of their last 16 games against Augsburg. They have lost just once to Augsburg in that time span while drawing a further five matches. Just twice in those 16 games have the two teams played a match in which fewer than 1.5 goals were scored. Expect Dortmund to take advantage of Augsburg’s poor defensive record with goals flying in. Borussia Dortmund will win with over 2.5 goals scored.
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