Following a "week without matches, which we took full advantage of to rest both physically and mentally," as coach Thomas Tuchel put it, Borussia Dortmund are about to embark on a run of five games in the space of 15 days. The tasks at hand? Securing their place in the next round of the two cup competitions and getting more points on the board in the Bundesliga.

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The next fortnight sees BVB square off against Freiburg, Sportfreunde Lotte, Bayer Leverkusen, Benfica and Hertha Berlin – in that order. "We need to perform now if still want to be competing at the business end of the season," says Tuchel, who has prepared his charges in optimal fashion for the first of those five matches – away to Freiburg on Saturday. "We really enjoyed a week without matches. It did us a lot of good. We'll really need to be in the zone from tomorrow onwards. We know we're favourites and we're heading to Freiburg to get the win."

Christian Streich's charges have been remarkably strong and consistent this term – particularly for a team that was only promoted last summer. The Baden-Wurttembergers have lost just one of their last four outings (in Gladbach), and only one of their last four on home turf (against Bayern). The calibre of those two teams serves to highlight the difficulty of the task awaiting the Black and Yellows. An "extremely calm environment and mutual trust between the coaching staff and the players," were cited by Tuchel as the factors behind their success. He spoke of a "cleverly assembled team that operates extremely well tactically and therefore makes it very difficult for every opponent to create chances".

Like many of his fellow Bundesliga coaches, Tuchel is wary of danger posed by Freiburg from set-pieces ("We need to keep the opposition as far away from our goal as possible to minimise this danger") and, perhaps even more so, their clinical finishing. He is expecting this meeting, between the two teams with the most "intensive runs" and sprints in the division, to be a "very intense encounter", concluding: "Ultimately we will try to force the result if need be."
Boris Rupert