Borussia Dortmund striker Erling Haaland is expected to make an eagerly awaited return from injury as his side look to battle back into the Bundesliga top four with a win over high-fliers VfL Wolfsburg tomorrow.
The prolific Norwegian prodigy has missed the past four league games and the past seven in all competitions after picking up a hamstring injury early last month. The 20-year-old returned to team training this week and Dortmund sporting director Michael Zorc confirmed that he would be back in action this weekend.
“Erling’s recovery has gone well. We are working on the assumption that he can play against Wolfsburg,” Zorc said.
Photo: AP
Haaland’s return is timely, with his side in desperate need of a win after a miserable run of form before Christmas saw them drop to fifth, eight points behind leaders Bayern Munich and two behind tomorrow’s opponents Wolfsburg.
Dortmund fired coach Lucien Favre after they were thrashed by promoted VfB Stuttgart on Dec. 12, before suffering a shock away defeat to Union Berlin in their second game under caretaker boss Edin Terzic.
Defeat to Wolfsburg would see Dortmund lose four home league games in a row for the first time in 20 years.
“The most important thing is that we start well and end well,” said Haaland, who has scored 17 goals in 14 games in all competitions this season.
In a season contracted by the COVID-19 pandemic, many Bundesliga clubs have had just a week off in the shortest winter break in the league’s history.
Yet after their pre-Christmas DFB Pokal tie was postponed until later this month, champions Bayern have had an extra week to recover and are expected to waltz past struggling FSV Mainz 05 tomorrow and defend their two-point lead at the top of the table.
Fresh from his coronation as the world’s best goalkeeper, Bayern goalkeeper Manuel Neuer is just one game away from equaling Oliver Kahn’s club record of 196 Bundesliga clean sheets, a milestone he has been chasing in vain for more than two months.
If he fails again to reach Kahn’s mark against Mainz, Neuer would have gone nine league games without a clean sheet for only the second time in his Bayern career.
Second from bottom of the table and without a win in six games, Mainz parted ways with both their coach and sporting director over Christmas.
Former Huddersfield Town manager Jan Siewert is to take the reins as interim coach against Bayern.
There has also been a changing of the guard at bottom club Schalke 04, where new coach Christian Gross is to take charge of his first game away to Hertha BSC today.
Former Tottenham Hotspur and Stuttgart coach Gross has been charged with leading Schalke out of relegation danger and ending their miserable winless streak of 29 games.
Having not won since January last year, the seven-time German champions are just two games away from equaling SC Tasmania 1900 Berlin’s record of 31 games without a win, set back in 1966.
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