Martin Meissner/Associated Press
Borussia Dortmund host FC Cologne on Matchday 34 of the 2015/16 Bundesliga season on Saturday.
It's the final day of the campaign, and neither of the two sides have
too much to play for, but it should still be an entertaining match.The hosts can complete a season without a home loss in the league and, more importantly, need to show an improved performance after the 1-0 loss at Eintracht Frankfurt on the previous matchday, with the Cologne match being the final dress rehearsal a week before the DFB-Pokal final with bitter rivals Bayern Munich in Berlin's Olympiastadion.
Cologne, meanwhile, would secure themselves a finish in the top half of the Bundesliga for the first time since the 1991/92 campaign with a good result. Austrian head coach Peter Stoger and sporting director Jorg
Schmadtke deserve a lot of credit for steering the notoriously hectic "Effzeh," as locals lovingly call the club, into shallow waters in the last few years.
The Billy Goats had nothing to do with the relegation battle all season long, a great accomplishment in and of itself in the second season since their return to the top flight.
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Austria Erste Liga:
Floridsdorfer AC - Neustadt
(0:2) 2 H@ 1.09
Kapfenberg - Austria Klagenfurt
(2:0) 1 H@ 1.04
FC Liefering - A. Lustenau
(0:2) 2 H@ 1.11
Innsbruck - Austria Salzburg
(2:0) 1 H@ 1.03
St. Polten - LASK Linz
(2:0) 1 H@ 1.13
Austria Regionalliga East:
SC Parndorf - Admira Wacker
Modling (A)
(2:0) 1 H@ 1.05
SV Schwechat - SKU Amstetten
(0:2) 2 H@ 1.12
SV Oberwart - ASK Ebreichsdorf
(2:0) 1 H@ 1.14
Wiener Sportklub - FC Stadlau
(2:0) 1 H@ 1.16
Austria Regionalliga Centre:
BW Linz - Annabichler SV
Over(2.5)@ 1.15
Wolfsberger AC - Hartberg
(2:0) 1 H@ 1.68
Sturm Graz (A) - Union Gurten
(2:0) 1 H@ 1.11
SV Lafnitz - Deutschlandsberger SC
(2:0) 1 H@ 1.09
SV Wallern - SC Weiz
(0:2) 2 H@ 1.15
Austria Regionalliga West:
FC Kitzbuhel - FC Pinzgau
Saalfelden
1@ 2.22
FC Kufstein - TSV Neumarkt
(2:0) 1 H@ 1.08
SV Seekirchen - TSV St. Johann
(0:2) 2 H@ 1.11
English Championship, Playoffs:
Sheffield Weds - Brighton
(0:2) 2 H@ 1.14
Spain Primera Division:
Valencia - Real Sociedad
(2:0) 1 H@ 1.05
Slovakia Superliga:
Spartak Myjava - MFK Ruzomberok
1@ 1.61
ZP Sport Podbrezova - FC Spartak
Trnava
(0:2) 2 H@ 1.08
MFK Zemplin Michalovce - Slovan
Bratislava
(2:0) 1 H@ 1.33
MFK Skalica - Dac 1904 Dunajska
Streda
(0:2) 2 H@ 1.15
FC Vion Zlate Moravce - FK Senica
1@ 1.93
AS Trencin - MSK Zilina
1@ 1.64
Italy Serie B:
Perugia - PRO Vercelli
(2:0) 1 H@ 1.13
Scotland Premiership: Falkirk - Hibernian (2:0) 1 H@ 1.22
The trip to the Westfalenstadion is almost a bonus game to close out the season, as Stoger alluded to in his press conference, via the club's official homepage: "The match against Dortmund is the ideal way to close the season. There are not too many games on the road that are as interesting and attractive to play than being able to play in Dortmund."
Cologne got the better of the Black and Yellows in the first matchup in December with a late come-from-behind 2-1 win. However, Dortmund haven't lost at home against Saturday's visitors since April 1991, winning 14 of 16 meetings.
Martin Meissner/Associated Press
Date: Saturday, May 14
Time: 2:30 p.m. BST/9:30 a.m. ET/3:30 p.m. local time
Venue: Signal Iduna Park, Dortmund
TV Info: Fox Sports 2 (U.S. only, part of a simulcast)
Livestream: Fox Soccer 2Go (U.S. only)
Form Guide
| Dortmund | Cologne |
| Hamburg: Win (3-0) | Leverkusen: Loss (2-0) |
| Hertha: Win (3-0) | Mainz: Win (3-2) |
| Stuttgart: Win (3-0) | Darmstadt: Win (4-1) |
| Wolfsburg: Win (5-1) | Augsburg: Draw (0-0) |
| Frankfurt: Loss (1-0) | Bremen: Draw (0-0) |
Predicted Lineups
Dortmund
Defenders Neven Subotic and Joo-Ho Park and midfielder Ilkay Gundogan will miss the game with injuries. Henrikh Mkhitaryan is suspended after picking up his fifth booking of the season against Frankfurt.
VI-Images/Getty Images
Lukasz Piszczek should return to the starting XI.
Poland international Lukasz Piszczek is set to return to the lineup having overcome slight muscular problems, while Christian Pulisic could get the nod as Mkhitaryan's replacement. Julian Weigl returns from his suspension.
However, head coach Thomas Tuchel could opt to play with a 3-4-2-1 alignment once again, with Piszczek at right-centre-back and Erik Durm on the wing, which may relegate 17-year-old United States international Pulisic to the bench.
Predicted Starting XI: Burki; Piszczek, Bender, Hummels, Schmelzer; Weigl, Castro, Kagawa; Pulisic, Aubameyang, Reus.
Cologne
Defender Frederik Sorensen is suspended after his fifth booking, too. Otherwise, all "players are up for discussion," as Stoger put it, adding "there are more than 11 players that have deserved a chance to play."
Therefore it wouldn't be too surprising to see some changes, with players getting a shot who haven't featured much in recent weeks. If Cologne go with a full-strength XI, however, expect them to play with five at the back, as they have done in a number of games against superior opposition.
Predicted Starting XI: Horn; Risse, Maroh, Mavraj, Heintz, Mladenovic; Lehmann, Hector; Osako, Bittencourt; Modeste.
Players to Watch
It's the first match after Mats Hummels' transfer to Bayern was officially announced, so all eyes will be on the team captain. A chorus of boos and whistles rained down on the 27-year-old in the previous home match against Wolfsburg, and that was when nothing was decided.
Usually an outgoing player would make his farewells in front of the imposing Yellow Wall, but that seems unlikely considering the hostility towards Hummels.
Chief executive Hans-Joachim Watzke told local paper Ruhr Nachrichten (h/t Tom Webber of Goal): "We will discuss with Mats [whether to have a farewell]. Normally this is common, but the season does not end on Saturday with the match against Cologne. We do not want to give the impression after the game it is all over."
Martin Meissner/Associated Press
Anthony Modeste scored the much-celebrated winner in the first meeting.
As for the visitors, Anthony Modeste will look to finish the season strong. The French striker has scored three goals in his last four matches and got the winner in the previous meeting with Dortmund. In that game, he came off the bench to score in the dying moments of regulation.
Despite being somewhat wasteful with his chances in many games, the 28-year-old is a very respectable fifth in the Bundesliga scoring charts with 14 goals, trailing only Robert Lewandowski, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Thomas Muller and Javier Hernandez, per sport magazine Kicker (link in German).
Key Battle
Timo Horn vs. Dortmund's Attack
With Dortmund looking to get into the right frame of mind ahead of the cup final against Bayern, expect them to come out firing. Especially after the disappointingly flat performance against Frankfurt, the Black and Yellows could use some goals.
Those could be hard to come by against a Cologne defence that has only allowed 40 goals in 33 matches, the fifth-best defensive record behind Bayern, Dortmund, Bayer Leverkusen and Ingolstadt.
Martin Meissner/Associated Press
Cologne's Timo Horn is one of the best young 'keepers in Europe.
Goalkeeper Timo Horn has kept a respectable eight clean sheets this season and one would be hard pressed to find any major individual errors he's committed.
Often linked with a move to the Premier League and Liverpool in particular—for example, via Ulrich Bauer of tabloid Bild in March (link in German)—the 23-year-old could play his last game for his boyhood club at the weekend.
CREDIT TO:http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2639855-borussia-dortmund-vs-cologne-team-news-preview-live-stream-tv-info
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