The big talking point in the last few days involving Dortmund has been the sale of their superstar striker, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. However, they must put this to the back of their minds as they return to business against Koln on Friday evening. Dortmund are 6^th in the table whilst their upcoming opponents are rock bottom in 18^th, seven points from safety. Both sides will be disappointing with how they have fared in the league so far.

STATS

• There hasn’t been a worse side in the Bundesliga so far this term, however, they have had a huge upturn in form in recent weeks and are now mounting an unlikely push for survival. They have won just three league matches this season and they have all come in their last four fixtures with a draw making up a four-match unbeaten run. This draw was against Augsburg in their last match with a 1-1 scoreline.
• While Dortmund haven’t been quite as bad as Koln, they are nowhere near where they expect to be. They are outside of the Champions League positions and have lost their star striker so it looks very bleak for them. They have drawn all three of their last three league matches and must turn those draws into wins if they hope to make the top four.
• Koln are the lowest scoring side in the German top-flight which explains why their leading goal scorer has just four goals. Sehrou Guirassy is the man with the nose for goal and should add a few more to his tally.
• Aubameyang was the second highest goal scorer in the Bundesliga before his move but the loan signing of Michy Batshuayi has hopefully filled that void.

HEAD TO HEAD

In the recent meetings between Koln and Dortmund, it has been quite hard to split the two sides. In the last six fixtures, they have drawn on four occasions with just one of the four being goalless. However, in the most recent game back in September, Dortmund battered Koln 5-0 thanks to two goals from that man, Aubameyang. Koln last beat BVB just over two years ago at the Müngersdorfer Stadion so they can take some confidence from that win.

KOLN NEWS

Another win for Koln will put them in a great place to move up the table and out of the relegation zone in the coming weeks. However, they have plenty of injury problems with Leonardo Bittencourt, Nikolas Nartey and Marcel Risse amongst the five injured players.

Latest matches: 1 FC Cologne

27.01.2018	Bund	1 FC Cologne	FC Augsburg	1:1	D
20.01.2018	Bund	Hamburger SV	1 FC Cologne	0:2	W
14.01.2018	Bund	1 FC Cologne	Monchengladbach	2:1	W
06.01.2018	Club	Arminia Bielefeld	1 FC Cologne	0:1	W
06.01.2018	Club	1 FC Cologne	Hertha BSC	4:1	W

DORTMUND NEWS

Dortmund need wins if they want to move into the top four places. They will be relying on Batshuayi to provide a cutting edge up front and he might make his debut on Friday. They have injury problems of their own: Andriy Yarmolenko, Marcel Schmelzer and Sebastian Rode are a few of the players who won’t feature. However, Marco Reus might return which will provide a huge boost.

Latest matches: Borussia Dortmund

27.01.2018	Bund	Borussia Dortmund	SC Freiburg	2:2	D
19.01.2018	Bund	Hertha BSC	Borussia Dortmund	1:1	D
14.01.2018	Bund	Borussia Dortmund	VfL Wolfsburg	0:0	D
08.01.2018	Club	Borussia Dortmund	SV Zulte Waregem	3:2	W
06.01.2018	Club	Fortuna Dusseldorf	Borussia Dortmund	0:2	W

SUMMARY

Earlier in the season, a Dortmund win would be the only realistic result but now, with Koln’s surge in form, it might not be as simple as that. At Koln’s home ground with their good run of results, a draw is probably the most likely but it could easily go either way. Dortmund will certainly be expecting to win but they will have to fight against a strong Koln storm.