On paper there is only one favorite, but on the field there will be two sides looking to come out with three points. While Borussia Dortmund could use them to try and get closer to Bayern Munich, Hamburg wants them to stay clear from the relegation zone which taunted them last season.
Hamburg's Preview
Hamburg has shown some signs of improvement throughout the season and they are now in 11th place of the Bundesliga standings with 15 points. At this point, only Bayern Munich seems to be on a league of its own, while every other team does not have margin for error if they want to keep their spot.
Hamburger SV is only five points behind Hertha Berlin that is in fourth place. At the same time, they are only five points ahead of Stuttgart that is in 16th place. Dortmund also has a bit of a cushion with 29 points so far. They are eight points ahead of Wolfsburg that is their closest rival.
Hamburg has less than one goal per game average, with a total of 11 goals in 12 matches. Their biggest problem is their defense, that has allowed 16 goals in the same amount of games. Average results have kept Hamburg in the middle of the table with still a long way to go.
Even playing at home has not been easy for this team. They hold a record of only one win, two draws and two losses when hosting other sides. Three of their four wins this season have come on the road, so hosting a team like Dortmund does not guarantee them anything. When both teams met in the same stadium last season, the game ended in a scoreless draw, while they were able to win against Klopp and Dortmund 1-0 on the road.
Pierre-Michel Lasogga is the leading scorer for this squad. He has five goals so far out of the 11 in Hamburg's account. Sven Shipplock only has two assists but that is good enough for him to be the leader of this team in that department.
Dortmund's Preview
The hottest team in the Bundesliga before the International Break was Borussia Dortmund. The team had four straight wins before the interruption of the domestic league and outscored their opponents by 13-4. Thanks to a draw from Bayern Munich, they were able to close down the gap between the two leaders in the Bundesliga.
With their numbers up to this point, Dortmund is experiencing their second best season so far. By the way, it is Thomas Tuchel's first year with the team after a long stint of Jurgen Klopp as the leader of this side. Dortmund has a record of nine wins, two draws and only one loss so far, which happened against Bayern Munich.
A big part of what BVB has been able to accomplish offensively is thanks to the great season that Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is experiencing. The French striker has 14 goals so far and has been able to keep up with Robert Lewandowski as the scoring leaders this season.
The best news for the team heading into the match against Hamburg is knowing that Marco Reus is fit for it. After doing some damage to some muscle fibers on November 5th against Qabala, the German star trained with his team this Monday. Tuchel is considering Reus as an option for his starting XI this Friday.
Shinji Kagawa, who traveled all the way to Japan to play with his national team over the break, will also be taken into consideration by Dortmund's coach. Between Kagawa, Reus, Aubameyang and Mkhitaryan, they have scored 54 of the team's 71 goals in all competitions.
Head to Head
In the 48 games played between these two teams, Dortmund holds an advantage. 22 wins have gone their way while Hamburg has only taken the lead on 12. The other 14 matches have ended in a draw. Dortmund also has a higher scoring percentage with 1.98 goals per game compared to the 1.46 average of Hamburg.
Match details, result and original broadcast info
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