Holstein Kiel vs Borussia Dortmund

Out-of-sorts Borussia Dortmund travel to the Holstein-Stadium to encounter Bundesliga newcomers Holstein Kiel in a must-win league fixture.

With the halfway stage of the campaign approaching, Holstein Kiel find themselves stranded in the relegation zone, six points beneath safety after a 3-2 defeat at Freiburg last weekend. Marcel Rapp’s side halted a dreadful five-game losing streak by dishing out a 5-1 rout of Augsburg on the stroke of the Christmas break but couldn’t maintain their uptick in form at the start of 2025. However, the impending return to the Holstein-Stadion can inspire confidence, considering both Kiel’s Bundesliga wins this season came on this ground. That’s barely comforting ahead of Dortmund’s visit, with the Storks losing both competitive H2Hs this century by 4+ goals ‘to nil,’ including a 4-0 DFB-Pokal defeat in their only previous meeting at this stadium in 2012.

Meanwhile, Borussia Dortmund’s erratic Bundesliga campaign suffered another hit at the start of the new calendar year as Bayer Leverkusen ran out 3-2 victors, inflicting Dortmund’s first league defeat at Signal Iduna Park under Nuri Sahin. With just one win from their last five top-flight outings (D3, L1), ‘Die Borussen’ head to Kiel desperate to live up to their favorite tag after falling five points behind the top-four pace. However, the visitors have stuttered on the road this season, going winless on all six Bundesliga travels (D2, L4) before a 3-1 triumph at Wolfsburg right before the winter break. Therefore, a first set of back-to-back away league wins since April is imperative if they’re to keep up with the top four.