Bundesliga preview: Dortmund out to extend winning streak

Borussia Dortmund will be confident of extending their winning streak to five games when they face Fortuna Dusseldorf on Tuesday.

The defending champions have not lost in any competition since going down to Schalke in the Bundesliga more than a month ago and head into the game at Signal-Iduna-Park off the back of a successful week which saw them convincingly beat Ajax 4-1 in the Champions League before overcoming Mainz 2-1 on Saturday.

Jurgen Klopp faces no fresh injury concerns after his side’s trip to Mainz and will be sure to stress the value of a win to his men as they attempt to catch runaway league-leaders Bayern Munich.

Dortmund currently sit in second on 25 points and victory would cut Munich’s lead to six points for at least 24 hours with the two sides set to clash on the weekend.

Dusseldorf rose from the relegation zone after a 2-0 win over Hamburg in their previous game and will be hoping for a repeat of their impressive performance as they look to consolidate their position in the top flight after enjoying promotion last year.

The win over Hamburg came at a cost however with defender Jens Langeneke limping off in the 41st minute with a leg injury and the veteran is a doubt for his side’s trip to the two-time defending champions in what is shaping up to be one of their toughest games of the year.

Schalke will travel to the Imtech Arena as they prepare to face Hamburg, with Huub Stevens’ side sitting one point behind Dortmund in third.

The Gelsenkirchen side could only manage a 1-1 draw with surprise packets Eintracht Frankfurt last time out and will be aware that a win is vital in order to keep pace with Bayern who are 10 points ahead.

Hamburg meanwhile will be without star man Rafael van der Vaart with the Dutch international ruled out for three weeks after tearing a calf muscle in his side’s 2-0 loss to Dusseldorf. Versatile attacker Son Heung-min will also miss Tuesday’s game with a muscle strain to his right thigh.

Thorsten Fink’s men have been in indifferent form so far this season and with Van der Vaart out they may find it difficult to stop their high-flying opponents.

Eintracht Frankfurt will entertain Mainz at the Commerzbank-Arena hopeful they can carry on with their surprising early-season form.

The newly-promoted side sit fourth on the Bundesliga table, enjoying seven wins so far this season but will go into the game without midfielder Karim Matmour who was sent off against Schalke.

Mainz have not won in their last two league games with victory over Nurnberg two weeks ago representing their last win. Thomas Tuchel’s side is currently ninth in the table and victory in Frankfurt could see them move up as high as sixth on the table.

Despite failing to win their last two league games, Hannover will be confident of collecting all three points when they take on lowly Greuther Furth at the AWD-Arena.

Hannover were pummelled 5-0 by Bayern Munich on Saturday but the fixture against Greuther represents the perfect opportunity to bounce back with the Bavarian side sitting second bottom on the table with just one win and eight points to show for their 13 games.