Borussia Dortmund vs Schalke

February 3, 2011
By: Nemanja Lazarevic

Bundesliga leaders Borussia Dortmund enter the famous Ruhr derby in great spirits after keeping their 11-point advantage at the top following the impressive win over Wolfsburg. Schalke, on the other hand, are in all sorts of problems at the moment and they definitely face an uphill task at Signal Iduna Park.

BVB still on fire

Rarely have one team been as impressive as Borussia Dortmund this season and this could be the first season after quite a while when the champions won’t be decided in the final round. Talented coach Jurgen Klopp has created a homogenous unit without real stars, but with amazing team spirit, which is the main reason behind their success this term. With 11-point cushion at the top and just 14 rounds to go, Borussia can already be announced the Bundesliga champions, but since they are not the sort of team that would rest on the laurels, we can only expect the Millionaires to keep their rich vein of form. Jurgen Klopp’s side ended the four-match winning run at home as they failed to beat Stuttgart two weeks ago, but everything suggests they will quickly return to winning ways.

Felipe Santana is expected to deputize for suspended Neven Subotic, while Kuba returns from a bout of flu. Shinji Kagawa, Sebastian Kehl and Patrick Owomoyela remain sidelined.

Has Magath lost the plot?

Schalke boss Felix Magath is definitely not your average coach as he knows to surprise both his players and fans with unexpected decisions, but he’s got to be given credit for all that he won during his illustrious career. Nonetheless, his decision to reinforce the team with Ali Karimi and Angelos Charisteas, who had been far from the big stage for quite a while, is at best controversial and unlikely to help the team at all. Does he really think that Karimi can do a better job than Jurado or that Charisteas will score more goals than Huntelaar? Magath has only created additional problems for himself and the team at a moment when Schalke are going through a very rough patch, so needless to say that his side are major underdogs in this match.

While Karimi, Charisteas and Avelar are unlikely to feature, Anthony Annan could go straight to the starting line-up after impressing following his move from Rosenborg. Christoph Metzelder is a doubt with a virus infection, so Kyrgiakos Papadopoulos could start.

Verdict

Borussia proved their title credentials with the 3:0 win at Wolfsburg and they will be very motivated to get one over their bitter rivals. Schalke are in pieces at the moment with Magath’s controversial signings only making things worse and the visitors definitely don’t look capable of getting anything from this match.

Our prediction: Home win

Odds: 1.63 (5/8)

Bookmaker: BetPhoenix

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