Rot-Weiss Oberhausen vs Borussia Dortmund

Stadion Niederrhein plays host to an all-German summer friendly between Rot-Weiss Oberhausen and Borussia Dortmund.

Stuck in the fourth tier of German football, Rot-Weiss Oberhausen had to settle for a gut-wrenching seventh-place finish in the Regionalliga West last season despite boasting the division’s fifth-best scoring average of 1.79 goals per game. Mike Terranova’s men hit a purple patch down the final stretch of the 202223 campaign, racking up three wins in their last four league games by an aggregate score of 10-1 (L1). ‘Die Kleeblätter’ have maintained their impressive run of form in the off-season, going unbeaten in their opening two summer friendlies (W1, D1), both of which contained under 2.5 goals. But they’ll still have to beat the odds to avoid defeat here, especially considering their only previous meeting with Dortmund yielded a disturbing 4-0 loss.

On the other hand, Borussia Dortmund’s pre-season got off to a flying start as they humbled lower-league Westfalia Rhynern 7-0 in their inaugural summer friendly. However, that victory was hardly enough to make ‘Die Borussen’ fans recover from a gut-wrenching season finale in last season’s Bundesliga, as a 2-2 home draw against Mainz on the final weekend saw Dortmund hand the title over to perennial champions Bayern Munich. On a more positive note, Edin Terzic’s lads come into this encounter unbeaten in their last nine outings (W6, D3), nine of which saw them score at least two goals at an average of 3.66 per game. It’s also worth noting that they clocked four clean sheets across their last seven matches.