Hamburg v Borussia Dortmund: Bundesliga sides set for emotionally charged fixture

Hamburg and Borussia Dortmund will meet at the Volksparkstadion on Friday in an emotionally charged Bundesliga clash.

The German national team were forced to spend the night at the Stade de France on Friday as Paris suffered a series of apparently coordinated terrorist attacks during their friendly against Didier Deschamps’ side.

Joachim Low’s men then had their match against Netherlands cancelled on Tuesday due to security concerns at the HDI-Arena in Hannover.

Despite promising an increased focus on security, Hamburg hope fans can demonstrate a united front through football on Friday.

“HSV will do all it can in to ensure the safety of its fans and viewers,” a club statement read. “We are in an ongoing dialogue with the state authorities, the Hamburg police, our security service and our next opponent, Borussia Dortmund.

“Every match brings together thousands of people who share their enthusiasm, joy and passion for football.

“That’s our contribution for a peaceful world, which starts with Friday night’s home match against Borussia Dortmund.”

Hamburg, who sit 11th in the table, have won just one home match this season and are currently on a run of four games without a win on their own turf.

However, they have suffered just one defeat in their last nine home fixtures against Dortmund – a 5-1 reverse during the 2011-12 season.

Dortmund failed to score a goal against Hamburg last season as they initially struggled before charging to a seventh-place finish, but Bruno Labbadia is not surprised to see this week’s opponents challenging at the top of the table once again.

“It is no surprise that BVB have recovered from the previous season,” said the Hamburg boss. “At that time they had a lot of national players who played a World Cup for the first time, plus a lot of injured players.”

Dortmund have won each of their last four matches and can temporarily close the gap to Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich, who face Schalke on Saturday, to just two points with a victory.

The Signal Iduna Park outfit will be able to call on Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang – scorer of 14 Bundesliga goals so far this season – despite a knee injury that kept him out of the first leg of Gabon’s World Cup 2018 qualifier against Mozambique.

They could also be boosted by the return of Marco Reus (hamstring), who resumed training after missing the Revierderby victory over Schalke through injury.

Nuri Sahin (knee) has taken a step forward in his recovery but is not likely to appear for the first team until 2016.

Key Opta stats:

– Hamburg have lost just one of their last six Bundesliga meetings with Dortmund (W4, D1) – a 6-2 loss away from home in September 2013.
– Second-placed Dortmund (29 points) have an eight-point cushion over third (Wolfsburg, 21 points) after 12 matchdays – this is the biggest gap at this stage since the introduction of the three-points-per-win system in 1995-96.
– Dortmund are unbeaten in 19 Friday fixtures (W17, D2), winning each of their last 10. Their last defeat dates back to February 2010, when they were beaten 2-1 by Schalke.
– After Bayern Munich (37 goals), Dortmund boast the second-best attack in the league (35) and only notched up more goals in the opening 12 games in the 1963-64 season (39). 
– On the other hand, only Ingolstadt (seven) have netted fewer goals than Hamburg (11) so far this campaign. 
– As a manager, Bruno Labbadia has won just one of his nine previous fixtures against Dortmund (D5, L3): He guided Hamburg to a 4-1 home victory over Jurgen Klopp’s Dortmund on matchday two of the 2009-10 season.