Borussia Dortmund’s women’s handball team travel to Bayer Leverkusen in the Bundesliga on Saturday (19:00 CET). The two teams met earlier in the season, as Leverkusen knocked out BVB in the DHB-Pokal a month ago. The Black & Yellows will be looking to take revenge this Saturday.

BVB will be hoping to get back to winning ways when they face Leverkusen. After four wins in a row, the BVB women’s handball team were knocked out of the cup and then suffered their first Bundesliga defeat of the season last Saturday. The game against TuS Metzingen was the subject of extensive discussion this week. “We analysed the game again with the team over two meetings,” said coach Henk Groener, adding: “We found good solutions in attack in the first half, but that said, we conceded 17 goals. We then improved our defence after the break. However, that coincided with us no longer having the answers on offence.” Groener also felt his team were lacking their usual tempo, one of the unit’s strengths, in the game against Metzingen. “We have to continue to make improvements in this area. That, and our defence, are the key points if we want to be successful in Leverkusen,” he added.

Preparations for the match on the Rhine have not been ideal. Emma Olsson is struggling with back problems and was forced to sit out several training sessions. The Swedish pivot player is a particularly important piece in the system following the injuries to Dana Bleckmann, Lena Degenhardt and Alicia Stolle, as she, like the sidelined trio, can be deployed in the mid-block of defence. Her absence would be particularly unfortunate at the weekend, as the return to action of team captain Stolle remains off the cards.

The BVB coach sees only a few parallels to the cup match in September going into this second encounter with Leverkusen this season. “Due to the numerous injuries, the upcoming clash with Leverkusen will be different to what we had in mind before the season. Nevertheless, defensively we want to repeat the performance of the second half against Metzingen. Up front, we want to play with consistency and discipline against the Leverkusen defence,” said the Dutchman.

The game away in Leverkusen begins at 19:00 CET on Saturday and will be streamed live on the platforms Sportdeutschland.TV and Dyn Media.