Borussia Dortmund’s U23s will be looking to end the first half of the 3. Liga season with a win at home to Hallescher FC at 14:00 CET on Saturday – the prime kick-off time at the venerable Rote Erde. 

There has been plenty of positive news from the U23 camp over the course of recent days: in their last home game against 1860 Munich, Jan Zimmermann’s team equalled the best-ever start of a Black & Yellow U23 team set in the 2021/22 promotion season, while Julian Hettwer took his scorer point total to 12 in Ulm (it was seven in the entirety of last season) and Marcel Lotka will return between the BVB sticks this weekend after serving his suspension.

In HFC, something of a favourite foe will be paying a visit to the Rote Erde on Saturday: the Borussia youngsters have not lost a single one of the previous 10 games between the teams. The fixture has ended in stalemate on seven occasions, while Dortmund have emerged victorious three times – most recently on 20 November 2021. Back then BVB won 2-1 on the Saale thanks to goals from Immanuel Pherai, with former BVB player Terrence Boyd scoring the goal against them. Curiously, the last three meetings have all ended in a goalless draw.

While the visitors will only be without Enrique Lofolomo, who is serving a suspension for a red card, the personnel situation in the BVB camp remains tense. Marcel Lotka is set to return in goal after a four-match suspension, but Felix Irorere, Jonah Husseck, Paul Besong, Justin Butler, Bjarne Pudel, Marian Kirsch and Moses Otuali are still injured. It will be decided at short notice whether Guille Bueno, Hendry Blank and Antonios Papadopoulos return to the team. They were in Bundesliga coach Edin Terzic’s squad on Wednesday evening.

BVB have started the last two matches with the same line-up; three times in a row has not yet happened this season.