German Bundesliga
2009-04-25 - Borussia Dortmund vs Hamburger SV
A Sports Betting Pick by Niko
Signal Iduna Park
Saturday, 25th April, 2009 – kickoff 15:30
The end of the Bundesliga season will be very interesting since the gap from the first to fifth is just six points.
Borussia Dortmund
Dortmund has won the derby last weekend against Bochum to claim its fourth straight victory. The team is in great form at present having collected 13 out of a possible 15 points and thus lying second in the ´current form´ table behind the leaders Wolfsburg.
With their fourth win in a row BVB moved up from eighth to seventh in the table and is pretty much level on goals and points with Schalke in sixth place.
For this game Coach Jurgen Klopp will not be making any changes in the team that won the last few rounds. The leader of the team is the captain Dede who was long time injured, but since he returned the team has improved a lot.
The Swiss international Alexander Frei brings stability and experience to the team and also very good news for the team is that the contract with the striker Nelson Valdez was extended for another two years until 30 June 2012 which can boost the team. The 25-year-old striker, who joined BVB in 2006 from Werder Bremen, has so far played 159 games in the Bundesliga. He has also picked up 42 caps for Paraguay.
The hard-running and committed striker, who scored BVB´s second goal in the 2-0 win over Bochum last weekend, has already been involved in eight goals in the second part of the season: he scored four goals himself and set up another four. Overall he has so far scored six goals in the Bundesliga.
Y-P. Lee has a minor injury and is doubtful and Boateng, Hummels, Gordon and Sadrijaj are all out through injuries for this match.
Hamburger
Hamburger SV are the only side in the Bundesliga still competing on more than one front, even after their dramatic exit from the DFB Cup in Wednesday's semi-final shoot-out with Werder Bremen.
Their pursuit of a league and UEFA Cup double will have to be maintained minus the services of their top scorer for the next few weeks however, after Mladen Petric suffered a badly-gashed shin in the match. Petric is likely to be out of action for the next two to three weeks which is very bad news for Hamburg, because in 23 league appearances this season, Petric has scored twelve times, as well as assisting on four more goals for team-mates. The Croatian international has also bagged a further five goals, and provided three assists, in eleven UEFA Cup matches.
Petric was not the only casualty of the cup semi-final match. Jonathan Pitroipa (bruised hip), Marcell Jansen (bruised ribs ) and Guy Demel (muscle problem) are all doubtful starters at this point for Saturday's visit to Borussia Dortmund.
Goalkeeper Frank Rost has also picked up a blow to the nose against Bremen, but he is expected to be fit for the weekend. It will be interesting to see if the fatigue will catch up Hamburger’s players having in mind they played an exhausting match this Wednesday.
The restless Ivica Olic is also back for this match as well as the defender Mathijsen which means the defense will be tighter than the last game. Hamburger had more success in the previous duels against Dortmund, but has a much tougher schedule in the remaining six Bundesliga matches.
Coach Martin Jol won't be able to count on Reinhardt, Atouba, Castalen, Chupo-Moting, Benjamin and Demel.
Head to Head
Both teams are in good form scoring many goals and playing offensively, although i think both teams will approach this game with caution. Former Dortmund player Mohammad Zidan will be motivated to score and too bad Petric is out so that might be a huge blow for the team morale.
Dortmund has drawn nine times playing at home this season, and Hamburger form is much better when playing home than away which suggests that they won't attack as much and will patiently wait their chances.
Head to Head Dortmund v Hamburger
08-11-08 Hamburger SV 2 - 1 Borussia Dortmund
15-03-08 Hamburger SV 1 - 0 Borussia Dortmund
25-09-07 Borussia Dortmund 0 - 3 Hamburger SV
10-02-07 Hamburger SV 3 - 0 Borussia Dortmund
16-09-06 Borussia Dortmund 1 - 0 Hamburger SV
25-03-06 Hamburger SV 2 - 4 Borussia Dortmund
The Statistics :
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The Pick :
Borussia Dortmund 1-1 Hamburger
