Dortmund vs FC Koln prediction: GERMANY: Bundesliga betting tips on match 2023-08-18 16:30.
Rarely have Borussia Dortmund gone closer than they did last season to dethroning rivals Bayern Munich and securing the Bundesliga crown. Their failure to see off Mainz by drawing 2-2 in their final home game of the season opened the door for Bayern to pip them and will have left mental scars. But a standout record of eight straight opening round wins in prior campaigns does suggest they can take a positive first step on the road to retribution here.
After losing Jude Bellingham and Raphael Guerreiro during the off-season, Dortmund recruited typically well by bringing in experienced Bundesliga campaigners such as Bensebaini, Felix Nmecha and Marcel Sabitzer, though manager Edin Terzić has not ruled out pursuing more “players with high quality and young players who are hungry”. Terzić himself will hope an imposing recent H2H home record against visitors Cologne, which includes wins in four of the last five contests and three 5+ goal hauls, might spark an untroubled start to the new season.
Cologne will have ambitions to build on last season’s 11th-placed finish and they received a boost in May when a one-year transfer ban imposed by FIFA was provisionally suspended. Despite that, there have been very few notable new arrivals, while the departure of last season’s top scorer Ellyes Skhiri and the retirement of captain Jonas Hector does look to have made the Billy Goats a weaker outfit coming into the campaign.
Their season began in less than ideal circumstances, needing extra time to get past second-tier VfL Osnabrück in the DFB-Pokal on Monday evening, leading manager Steffen Baumgart to lament “two less days of preparation for us”. They’ll head to Signal Iduna Park no doubt with March’s heavy 6-1 H2H defeat still fresh in the memory. Yet, that defeat helped spark a change in fortunes on the road for Steffen Baumgart’s side who went on to pick up more away points than any other Bundesliga side in the remaining weeks of the campaign (ten; W3, D1).
Players to watch: The aforementioned Bensebaini bagged two goals for Mönchengladbach at home to Cologne last season, whilst visiting Florian Kainz also enjoyed success in this H2H last season, grabbing a goal and an assist in the 3-2 home win against Dortmund.
Hot stat: Dortmund have scored 3+ goals in five of their last six opening round matches.