Pre-Match Report
The facts on the match against St. Pauli
The scenario: The seventh-placed club will kick off Matchday 7 against the team in 15th position. The last Bundesliga meeting between the clubs took place in February 2011. BVB won 2-0 thanks to goals from Lucas Barrios and Ralph Gunesch (own goal). Borussia are unbeaten in 10 Bundesliga matches against FC St. Pauli (nine wins and one draw) and do not have a better record against any other current Bundesliga club: 11 victories and two defeats in 16 top-flight matches.
Home/away: Borussia Dortmund have won each of their four home games across all competitions this season and have scored four goals on average. BVB are currently the best home team in the league with a flawless record. St. Pauli won every second away game in the second tier last season and finished in second place in the away table behind Holstein Kiel with 31 points (nine wins, four draws and four defeats). Their three away games to date in the top flight have produced two losses (1-0 away to Union Berlin and 3-1 in Augsburg) and one victory (3-0 in Freiburg) – which is more points (three) than in their three home games combined (one).
Statistics: It is a meeting between the two clubs that have fielded the fewest players in the season so far (both only 19). St. Pauli are the team with the fewest goals scored (four); no other team has failed to find the net so often (on four of their six matchdays) – and that is despite registering 73 shots at goal. Only every 18th attempt has found the net. That's the league's worst conversion rate.
Head-to-head record: The two teams are about to meet for the 23rd time competitively and the 17th time in the Bundesliga. In the league (11 BVB wins, three draws and two defeats), the last meeting was in the 2010/11 season (2-0 H, 3-1 A). Borussia Dortmund have since travelled to the Millerntor twice in the DFB-Pokal (3-0, 1-2). Borussia have dropped points in five of their 16 league clashes, three of which were at home (all draws). St. Pauli have not lost more matches to any Bundesliga opponent than to BVB (11, same as against Bremen) and the Hamburg outfit have not conceded as many Bundesliga goals against any other team as they have against Borussia Dortmund (33).
Biggest home win: On Matchday 34 of the 1990/91 season, the 30,624 spectators at the Westfalenstadion saw a 5-2 win in the final game of Horst Köppel's tenure as head coach (DFB-Pokal winner in 1989). There were three goals between the 52nd and 61st minutes. Gerd Poschner, Michael Rummenigge (penalty), Jürgen Wegmann and Flemming Povlsen (two goals) scored for BVB, who finished the season in 10th place. St. Pauli finished 16th and went into the relegation/promotion play-off, which they lost over three matches to Stuttgarter Kickers.
Compiled by Boris Rupert