Borussia Dortmund, the German champions of 2010-11 and 2011-12, take on the perennial bridesmaid of German football, Bayer 04 Leverkusen, to kick off the second half of the season. This clash has not produced some close and thrilling contests in recent history; Leverkusen will be confident of adding another win against Dortmund to their 0-2 victory at the beginning of the season. The team backed by the company Bayer scored their first goal within the first minute through Karim Bellarabi and added their second in injury time in the second half through Stefan Kiessling. The past six meetings in the Bundesliga between these two sides have resulted in two wins for Roger Schmidt's side and three wins for Jürgen Klopp's side with the other encounter finishing in an entertaining 2-2 draw.
Dortmund focused on preparing quietly to right the wrongs of the first half of the season; they sit a lowly seventeenth in the relegation zone. They have to start well to stave off relegation worries. They transferred in Keven Kampl from Red Bull Salzburg and sold Ji Dong-Won to Augsburg. Leverkusen added Tin Jedvaj to the squad permanently from Roma after impressive first half performances from the hotheaded youngster. They allowed the bright teenager, Levin Öztunali, to head out on loan to Werder Bremen; they also loaned out backup goalkeeper Niklas Lomb to Hallescher FC.
Leverkusen sit in third spot in the table, a full seventeen points behind Bayern and six points behind second placed Wolfsburg. Their form prior to the Winter Break was inconsistent at best; they won once, drew twice and lost once in their last four matches in the league. Schmidt will hope that his side can do better than that; they will need to do so to hold on to their automatic UEFA Champions League spot. Borussia Mönchengladbach, Schalke 04 and surprisingly, Augsburg, are bearing down on them.
Who will win this crucial match? Interested in learning how you can watch the 2014-15 Bundesliga? Check out our Bundesliga Multi-Platform Broadcast Guide.
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