Borussia Dortmund host Werder Bremen for the second time this month as the two sides lock horns in the second round of the DFB-Pokal on Tuesday.
BVB
Dortmund will hope to continue their momentum with a third successive win in three competitions. After they got back to winning ways in Europe with Serhou Guirassy's brace in Baku, Niko Kovac's side relied on a late winner by Maximilian Beier against Eintracht Frankfurt.
In a week that will end with the “Der Klassiker” at FC Bayern, Dortmund could take a huge step in both domestic competitions. A DFB-Pokal winner with both Eintracht Frankfurt and Bayern, Kovac has failed to get past the Round of 16 stage in his last three attempts with Wolfsburg and Dortmund.
Bremen
The six-time cup winners started the Bundesliga campaign with a heavy defeat against Europa League finalists Freiburg. However, their only defeat since then came in a 7-0 friendly loss to Twente during the international break.
With Niclas Füllkrug in fine form, Daniel Thioune's men could even push for European return. The Green and Whites were knocked out of the DFB-Pokal by Arminia Bielefeld in the last two seasons.
Head-to-head
Füllkrug's two penalty-kicks in Mainz meant the former BVB striker leads the Torjägerkanone race all by himself with eight goals. The former Germany international scored the injury-time equalizer against Dortmund as Bremen came from two-goal down to earn a dramatic point after the international break.
Bremen prevailed in the last three cup encounters against Dortmund, with all of those ties coming at the Round of 16 stage. The winners on Tuesday will earn a place in the last 16 of this season's competition.
Team News
Kovac confirmed Konstantinos Karetsas will remain on the sidelines as his pre-match press conference also hinted at the absence of the Greece international for the Bayern clash as well. Ramy Bensebaini will serve the second and last game of suspension for his red card in the Franz Beckenbauer Supercup.
Olivier Deman is a doubt for the visitors after he had to be substituted off at half-time against Mainz. Despite Bremen's long injury list – including star players Jens Stage, Justin Njinmah and Niklas Stark – Thioune could still decide to rest the likes of Karl Hein and Füllkrug.
Predicted Lineups
BVB: Kobel; Gadou, Anton, Schlotterbeck ©; Ryerson, Veerman, Svensson; Chukwuemeka, Bellingham; Guirassy, Fabio Silva
Bremen: Hein; Arthur, Pieper, Friedl ©, Deman; Reis, Lynen; Chuki; Dinkci, Grüll; Füllkrug