Borussia Dortmund v Wolfsburg: CONFIRMED line-ups, match stats and live blog!

Will Erling Haaland score his first Bundesliga goal since January as Borussia Dortmund host Max Kruse and Wolfsburg on Saturday (kick-off: 3.30pm CEST)?

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Haaland has gone five games without scoring since returning from injury in early March. The Norwegian’s last goal came as Dortmund beat Hoffenheim 3-2 at the end of January, but his drought didn’t stop BVB’s progress. A 2-0 win at VfB Stuttgart last week put a 4-1 home loss to RB Leipzig behind them and leaves Die Schwarzgelben nine points behind Bayern Munich with five games to go – including The Klassiker in Munich next week. BVB will also join Bayern in next season’s UEFA Champions League group stage if they improve on fifth-placed Freiburg’s result against Bochum. Injuries in defence, with no fit right-back and Mats Hummels also sidelined, mean Emre Can continues at the back. Gio Reyna will also not play again this season after picking up a hamstring injury just six minutes into the Stuttgart game. Julian Brandt came on and scored both goals and starts, but left-back Raphael Guerreiro is definitely out, meaning a debut for 17-year-old Tim Rothe.

Kruse netted his third goal since returning to Wolfsburg in January in a 4-0 home win against Arminia Bielefeld on the final day. This moved Wolves to 13th, eight points ahead of Bielefeld and Hertha Berlin in the play-off and drop zone respectively. Lukas Nmecha scored two of the goals to take his Bundesliga tally for 2021/22 to eight from 20 games. Yannick Gerhardt was the provider of those two strikes, and the versatile retains his place at left-back ahead of Jérôme Roussillon despite the Frenchman returning to the team last time out. American teenager Kevin Paredes made his debut for the club with a four-minute appearance as a substitute for Maximilian Arnold against Bielefeld. Although coach Florian Kohfeldt intends to give the 18-year-old more playing time in the final weeks of the season, he is not in the squad today.

Watch: Haaland scored on his comeback as BVB won the reverse game

Match statistics

• Despite averaging a league goal every 92 minutes this season – and every 88 during his Bundesliga career – Haaland is enjoying his longest drought in Germany (384 minutes).
• Former Wolfsburg player Brandt’s brace on the final day took him to seven goals this season. A league high, five of those came from breakouts.
• Borussia have lost three of their last five competitive matches at Signal Iduna Park.
• Kruse has five goals and six assists in his last 15 Bundesliga games against Dortmund. He also scored against them for Union Berlin this season.
• Since beating BVB 3-1 in the 2014/15 DFB Cup final, Wolfsburg have failed to win against Borussia in 13 encounters (D1, L12) and failed to score during his last five visitors to Dortmund.
• Wolves are bottom of the league table for shooting efficiency this season. On the other hand, the BVB are in the lead.

CONFIRMED compositions

Dortmund: Kobel – Can, Akanji, Zagadou, Rothe – Witsel, Bellingham – Brandt, Reus (c), Wolf – Haaland
Subtitles: Hitz, Schulz, Moukoko, Reinier, Pongracic, Semic, Bynoe-Gittens, Papadopoulos
Outside: Dahoud (shoulder), Guerreiro (muscle), Hazard (back) Hummels (thigh), Malen (muscle), Meunier (hamstring), Morey (knee), Passlack (muscle), Reyna (hamstring), Schmelzer ( knee), Tigges (ankle)
Coach: Marco Rose

Wolfsburg: Casteels (c) – Lacroix, Bornauw, Brooks – Baku, Schlager, Arnold, Gerhardt – Wind, Kruse – L. Nmecha
Subtitles: Pervan, Roussillon, Mbabu, Vranckx, Steffen, F. Nmecha, Philipp, Bialek, Lukebakio
Outside: Otavio (knee), Van de Ven (thigh), Waldschmidt (ankle), William (knee)
Coach: Florian Kohfeldt