Dortmund, Schalke eye three big points in Revierderby

Published February 05, 2015

Gelsenkirchen, Germany (SportsNetwork.com) - Borussia Dortmund and Schalke will both attempt to turn around disappointing starts to their respective Bundesliga campaigns on Saturday when the two rivals clash at the Veltins Arena in the Revierderby.

Dortmund has been the biggest threat to German giants Bayern Munich in recent seasons, but Jurgen Klopp's side has already fallen four points behind the defending champions after collecting just one point from their past two league outings.

Schalke has struggled even more this season, going winless in its first four games before a 3-0 victory at Werder Bremen on Tuesday eased some of the pressure on manager Jens Keller.

Klopp's team appeared to be building some momentum after an impressive 2-0 win over Arsenal in the Champions League. However, Dortmund lost 2-0 to Mainz last weekend and needed to come from 2-0 down against a struggling Stuttgart side to salvage a 2-2 draw in midweek.

"We again made two serious mistakes and then got two goals back. This is the classic case - what we build with our hands, we knock down with our butts," Klopp said of his team's performance after the Stuttgart match.

"We know that we can always score but the goals we gave away are just ridiculous."

Dortmund has enjoyed some success at the Veltins Arena in recent seasons, winning three of the past four games at the ground.

But another three points will be tough to come by as Dortmund's injury list includes Nuri Sahin, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Marco Reus, Sebastian Kehl, Oliver Kirch, Jakub Blaszczykowski and Ji Dong-won, all of whom will miss the Schalke clash.

The one bright spot for Klopp is the likely return to the lineup of Germany international defender Mats Hummels, who is set to make his first start of the season.

Schalke is also missing a few key pieces as captain Benedikt Howedes is out through injury, while star midfielder Julian Draxler is suspended.

Bayern Munich restored some order to the league by returning to the top of the table following a 4-0 victory over Paderborn, and Pep Guardiola's men will face a Cologne side that has yielded just one goal in five games this term.

Bayer Leverkusen is one point back of Bayern and the club visits a struggling Freiburg side, while Hannover is level with Leverkusen on 10 points and travels to Stuttgart, which has yet to win this season.

Paderborn tries to rebound from its heavy defeat against Bayern when the club hosts Monchengladbach, Wolfsburg entertains Werder Bremen, Eintracht squares off with last-place Hamburg and Augsburg tangles with Hertha Berlin.

Friday's lone contest saw Mainz and Hoffenheim play to a 0-0 draw.

URL

https://www.foxnews.com/sports/dortmund-schalke-eye-three-big-points-in-revierderby