Verl vs Borussia Dortmund

Borussia Dortmund’s life after Erling Haaland begins this midweek as Edin Terzic’s men take on lower-league German outfit Verl at the Sportclub Arena.

Coming into this high-profile summer friendly, the hosts have experienced mixed fortunes across their four pre-season matches so far (W2, D1, L1), all of which were against last season’s lower-league teams. A high-scoring theme highlighted that four-game sequence, as three fixtures in that span featured both teams on the scoresheet in matches garnering 4+ overall goals. Michel Kniat’s lads can draw confidence from an eye-catching four-match home form (W3, D1), during which they scored a whopping 16 goals and conceded just three in return. Interestingly, free-scoring Verl have netted 3+ goals in five of their last six home outings, including the 2021/22 season.

On the other hand, while waiting for marquee summer signing Sebastien Haller to make his debut, Borussia Dortmund put three unanswered first-half goals in their opening two summer friendlies versus Luner SV and Dynamo Dresden. Having won both fixtures by a two-goal margin, ‘Die Borussen’ are feeling confident about beating another sub-par opposition in their first-ever match-up. Except for a 3-1 defeat at arch-rivals Bayern Munich down the tail-end of 2021/22, last season’s Bundesliga runners-up have bagged over 1.5 goals in four of their five previous away matches, putting their well-documented scoring prowess on full display. However, it’s worth mentioning that they only kept two clean sheets during that five-game stretch.