Borussia Dortmund host Club Brugge in the Champions League on Tuesday, with the Germans aiming to win in order to move five points clear of their opponents with only two games remaining.
Lucien Favre's side ran out comfortable 3-0 winners in Brugge just three weeks ago, so will head into the match with plenty of confidence.
Match preview
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Indeed, after disappointingly losing 3-1 at Lazio in the opening game of the group, with former player Ciro Immobile coming back to haunt them, Dortmund have recovered well to beat Zenit St Petersburg and Brugge to move top of Group F.
Erling Braut Haaland scored a brace in the win at Brugge, and the 20-year-old phenomenon was at it again in the Bundesliga on Saturday, sensationally scoring four goals in a 5-2 win at Hertha Berlin to take his tally to 20 goals for club and country already this season.
Haaland followed in the footsteps of the likes of Kylian Mbappe, Raheem Sterling and Paul Pogba by recently edging out teammate Jadon Sancho to win the Golden Boy award, which prestigiously recognises the best player under the age of 21 in world football.
With a striker in this type of goalscoring form, the sky really should be the limit for BVB. Another win against Brugge will see them put one foot in the knockout stages for the fourth time in five seasons, and this time they may well be a greater threat to sides than they have been in any of those years.
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Club Brugge, meanwhile, have performed above expectations in the group, gaining four points from three matches to give themselves a realistic chance of progressing to the knockout stages for the first time in the club's history.
Either way, former Belgium midfielder Philippe Clement has done an excellent job since taking over in June 2019, registering a 57% win rate on the way to winning the club's 16th league title.
Noa Lang's 60th minute strike was enough to earn a narrow 1-0 win over Kortrijk at the weekend, taking Brugge top of the table as they look to retain the Belgian title.
First and foremost, though, Clement will have his eyes on recording what would represent a significant upset should they manage to gain a positive result in Dortmund.
Borussia Dortmund Champions League form: LWW
Borussia Dortmund form (all competitions): WWWWLW
Club Brugge Champions League form: WDL
Club Brugge form (all competitions): LDDLWW
Team News
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Favre likes to rotate his side as often as possible and may do so once again on Tuesday, especially with Bayern Munich's dropped points at home to Werder Bremen helping Dortmund move to within a point of their rivals in the Bundesliga table.
The 63-year-old has a wealth of options at his disposal, including recent England debutant Jude Bellingham who may come into the starting XI, with only defender Marcel Schmelzer unavailable having undergone knee surgery earlier in the campaign.
Clement is a little less fortunate on the availability front, with defenders Matej Mitrovic and Federico Ricca missing through injury and Eduard Sobol unable to play due to coronavirus.
The 46-year-old may choose to deploy a back five, having been opened up on too many occasions in the last meeting between the sides, when Brugge utilised a back four.
Borussia Dortmund possible starting lineup:
Burki; Meunier, Akanji, Hummels, Guerreiro; Witsel, Bellingham; Sancho, Hazard, Reyna; Haaland
Club Brugge possible starting lineup:
Mignolet; Mata, Mechele, Deli; Diatta, Rits, Vormer, Vanaken, De Ketelare; Badji, Lang
We say: Borussia Dortmund 2-0 Club Brugge
We expect Brugge to have learned a lesson from their previous defeat to Dortmund, but equally don't anticipate it being enough to see them gain a result.
Dortmund may find their opponents tougher to break down than last time, with less space in behind for Haaland to run into, but should still have too much quality.
Top betting tip
Brett Curtis
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 52.48%. A draw had a probability of 24% and a win for Club Brugge had a probability of 23.51%.
The most likely scoreline for a Borussia Dortmund win was 1-0 with a probability of 10.79%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (9.7%) and 2-0 (9.18%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (11.39%), while for a Club Brugge win it was 0-1 (6.7%). The actual scoreline of 3-0 was predicted with a 5.2% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Borussia Dortmund would win this match.
