Bundesliga leaders Borussia Dortmund have enjoyed an electric start to the season domestically, but they’re not presently on the pace in the Europa League. With two matches left all is not lost, though Juergen Klopp’s men badly need to pick up three points on Thursday against Karpaty Lviv if they are to progress to the last 32.
The Bundesliga campaign is quickly approaching its halfway stage, yet BVB are now clear favourites to lift the title. Leading closest rivals by Mainz by seven points, they also command a formidable 11 point advantage over Bayer Leverkusen, not to mention a 14 point cushion back to pre-season title favourites Bayern Munich.
At the weekend, the men from the Ruhr Valley set down another marker as they annihilated bottom club Borussia Moenchengladbach 4-1. The hosts were not fazed by Marco Reus’ opening goal just before the interval, and by the time half-time rolled around Neven Subotic had shot them level. Shinji Kagawa pushed BVB ahead, before a couple of late strikes from Kevin Grosskreutz and Lucas Barrios added gloss to the score.
“I feel more relief than unbridled joy,” Klopp confessed to the media after the game, doubtless focussing on the importance of keeping their solid advantage domestically as opposed to the forthcoming Europa League encounter against Karpaty – the only side they’ve managed to beat in the group stage this season.
A home defeat against Sevilla was followed by a tie against Paris Saint-Germain, and on the back of these two disappointing results at the Signal Iduna Park, better must be attained on Thursday.
Whitewashed So Far
Ukrainian outfit Karpaty were styled as the pool’s whipping boys prior to the start of the competition, and fate has dictated that they would live up to their billing, losing all four matches to date. But the Lviv side have been competitive, and Borussia have been well warned to take their challenge seriously.
Back in Matchday 1, they came close to causing a huge sensation when they hosted the Bundesliga club. In a thrilling game Oleh Kononov’s side had turned around a 2-0 deficit to lead 3-2 with only three minutes of normal time remaining. Not only would Karpaty fail to hold their lead, they failed to even earn a draw as goals from Lucas Barrios and Mario Goetze sunk the shell-shocked hosts.
Though Karpaty’s domestic campaign hasn’t suffered greatly as a result of that set-back – they presently lie in fifth spot, the position they finished last term – their European adventure has not recovered. Three defeats have followed, one against Paris Saint-Germain and two against Sevilla, and in those matches the Ukrainians haven’t so much as scored.
There will be a strong desire in the visiting unit not to finish the group stage as a team whitewashed, so the remaining two games will be played all out. Going to Germany and earning even a point seems just a little beyond Karpaty at present though.
TEAM NEWS
Borussia Dortmund
Lucas Barrios leads a not insignificant list of injury problems that also includes Patrick Owomoyela, Sebastian Kehl and Mohamed Zidan. Shinji Kagawa will have to prove his fitness prior to kick-off.
Karpaty Lviv
Mykhaylo Kopolovets, William Batista, Oleh Holodyuk and Sergei Zenjov are out with injury problems.
Prediction
Borussia 3-1 Karpaty Lviv
