Borussia Dortmund vs. Hoffenheim - prediction, team news, lineups

Off to their second-best start to a Bundesliga campaign, Hoffenheim have a chance to end a four-match losing run versus Borussia Dortmund in league play when they face them on Friday at Signal Iduna Park.

Both sides have nine points after four matches in the German top flight, with Dortmund winning this exact fixture last season by a 3-2 score.

After making the wrong kind of history in their previous home fixture, becoming the first team in the Bundesliga to concede three goals from the 89th minute onward, we saw a Dortmund side with a lot more structure and organisation at Hertha Berlin last weekend, winning 1-0

Aside from a late collapse to Werder Bremen, losing 3-2, it has been a reasonably positive start to the new campaign for Edin Terzic and his team.

They had 62% possession versus Hertha Berlin over the weekend and posted their second clean sheet of the domestic campaign, two more than they had at this stage last season.

Their defeat at home to Bremen was the first time since the 2014-15 campaign that Dortmund had dropped points in at least one of their opening two domestic fixtures played at Signal Iduna Park, though they have not gone winless in back-to-back home games in league play since dropping their final two encounters played in North Rhine-Westphalia in 2020.

Terzic was understandably pleased with how his team fared in possession last Saturday, though he has stressed the importance of putting matches out of reach when the opportunity arises, something they have struggled to do in the Bundesliga this season.

In 2021-22, they did the double against TSG for the first time ever, winning both contests 3-2 after capturing only one of their previous seven fixtures versus the Sinsheim side.

Borussia Dortmund have had a difficult time containing the attack of Die Kraichgauer on home soil, conceding 11 goals against them since the start of 2018-19, while capturing only one of their previous four home outings versus Hoffenheim.

No TSG coach has taken more points from their first four top-flight matches at the club than their current boss, who guided FC Zurich to the Swiss Super League title in 2022, their first domestic championship since 2008-09.

The current three-match winning run for Die Kraichgauer is their longest string of victories since they captured four straight domestic games between February and March last season.

Hoffenheim have posted back-to-back clean sheets in league play for the first time since April 2021, conceding just a single shot on target in a 1-0 victory over Augsberg last Saturday.

If they can keep Dortmund off the scoresheet on Friday, they would equal a club record for the longest shutout streak in the Bundesliga, a feat they previously achieved in January last year.

A 3-0 victory over Bayer Leverkusen on matchday three ended a five-match winless run for Hoffenheim away from home in this competition, having been outscored 16-4 during that slump.

In their last two Bundesliga campaigns, the Sinsheim team have only lost one of their five matches played in September, dropping a 2-0 decision to Mainz 05 last season.