It’s likely to be an enthralling contest this evening in front of Dortmund’s famous “Yellow Wall” at the Westfalenstadion, with Frankfurt needing the points to have any real chance of an assault on the European places while the hosts – once league leaders, but now four points back after a poor return from the winter break – really need the win to avoid falling further behind Bayern Munich. It’s also a chance to see the Norwegian phenomenon that is Erling Braut Haaland, who is looking to add to his total of 36 goals from 27 games with two clubs in the 2019/20 season.
Frankfurt are, to some extent, victims of their own impressive season in the 2018/19 campaign. The Eagles made the semi-finals of last season’s Europa League, and as a result scouts were attracted to star forward Sebastien Haller, who departed for £40million to West Ham. They were also stripped of the excellent Luka Jovic, whose superb performances saw him packaged off to Real Madrid. They have at least secured the services of Bas Dost, who is very tall and occasionally scores goals.
Haaland the focus of all attention
Erling Haaland is just 19 years old, and has already had a career that would be considered respectable by most players. Having come through the ranks at Molde, he moved to RB Salzburg for upwards of £7million last winter, and after a quiet integration into the first team, he started this campaign with 28 goals in 22 games, starring in the Champions League and firing more than a goal a game in Austria’s version of the Bundesliga. This was enough to persuade Dortmund not to let him mature any further on the other side of Lake Constance, and they paid his full release fee to bring him to the banks of the Ruhr.
Since that move in the January window, he has hit the ground running, notching a hat-trick on his debut at Augsburg and another two on his home bow against Koln. Two more followed when Union Berlin visited for the occasion of his first start, because yes, those first two appearances were as sub. He’d scored five times before he so much as started a game, although he did draw a blank as Dortmund lost at Bayer Leverkusen last weekend. All in all, including another goal in the cup against Bremen, Haaland has eight goals in five games for Dortmund. He’s odds-on to score again tonight – and not narrow odds-on. 13/25, at 888, although you can back him to get at least two for odds of 14/5. Why not? He tends to score more than one a game, after all.
If only he could play in defence…
For all that Dortmund seem to have found the cheat codes in attack, their defence poses more concerns. They scored three times in the first half last week, and that should have been enough to secure three points. In the end, they didn’t even take one as Leverkusen scored twice in the last ten minutes. The thing is that the “Black and Yellows” are scoring close to three goals a game, but they are also conceding at least one each game – and against better attacks, they concede more goals. Twice they’ve drawn 3-3 this season, and again the point needs to be made: when you score three goals, you should win the game.
Eintracht aren’t exactly setting the heather ablaze up front. Dost, their main summer signing in attack, has five league goals, which is one fewer than centre-back Martin Hinteregger, and is also as many as Haaland scored in his first 56 minutes as a BvB player. Nonetheless, they don’t play Dortmund every week, and they could well expose a few gaps at the back. What we’re saying is, we expect a few goals in this game. You can get 19/10 at NetBet for more than 4.5, which could possibly all be scored by a certain Norwegian if he’s in the mood.
Dortmund to get what they need, eventually
This is certainly set to be an entertaining game – the atmosphere at the Westfalenstadion always ensures that even a pedestrian match is exciting for the viewer – and Dortmund will want to bounce back after a hugely disappointing loss last weekend. They’re also unlikely to compromise on their attacking approach to the game, and why should they? With Haaland, Jadon Sancho and Thorgan Hazard at their front three, they’re fizzing with ideas and confidence in that part of the field.
This “we’re-going-to-score-one-more-than-you” approach will bite Dortmund on occasion this season, as it already has on multiple sallies in the Bundesliga and beyond. Tonight, though, they should have enough to make it past an opponent that just seems to lack the quality to compete at the sharp end of the table. It could end up 6-5, who knows? But if it does, it will probably be to Dortmund. We’d back them for the win in this – but the short odds make a straight bet relatively pointless. Betway, however, have a boost offering 9/2 on Haaland scoring the opener and the hosts winning, and we’d take that all day long.
