No other fixture gets so many fans so worked up: five million spectators have seen the 90 Bundesliga derbies between Black & Yellow and Royal Blue to date live. Every encounter in Dortmund since 1987 has sold out.

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How Things Stand: Fifth against second. In the previous 89 Bundesliga derbies, there has only been one occasion on which the winner would overtake the loser in the table: Borussia achieved this on 19.09.1987 with a 4-1 win to get them to twelfth spot. BVB have only lost one of the last eight derbies.

Home & Away: Having gone undefeated at home for 41 games, there have since been two defeats for BVB. Schalke have won three of their last four away games. In the last three derbies played at home, Borussia collected seven from a possible nine points.

Personnel: It remains unknown how the endurance test went for Sokratis, Pulisic and Bürki. There are also doubts for Schalke regarding Goretzka and possibly also Stambouli. Piszczek, Reus and Durm are definitely unavailable for Dortmund, as are Insua and Bentaleb for Schalke.

Head to Head: Going into the 151st Ruhr Derby, it is still the Royal Blues who have their nose ahead in the race thanks to the successes of the Gauliga era (58 wins, 41 draws, 51 defeats). BVB have only lost one of the last eight encounters (September 2014 away at S04), but have only won four of the 18 derbies played so far this millennium on Strobelallee. Against no other team do Schalke cause so many penalty kicks than against BVB (14). Schalke have only won once after having gone 0-1 down (2-1 on 13 August 2005), and have already lost a lead here eleven times. The derby has ended in a no-score draw ten times – no other Bundesliga fixture has ended more often with no goals scored. 

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The Stats: Borussia Dortmund have only failed to score in one of their last 15 league matches. Schalke have won four of their last five matches in the Bundesliga, and have gone six games without losing. Their last defeat came on 23.09.2017 when they lost 0-2 at Hoffenheim. The Miners have only conceded more than two goals in just one match during the current season.

Greatest Home Win: On matchday 23 of the 1965/66 season, Borussia Dortmund wiped the floor with their rivals from the Ruhr, defeating them 7-0 in the Rote Erde stadium. Siggi Held, Aki Schmidt, Siggi Held, Wilhelm Sturm, Hoppy Kurrat, Aki Schmidt and Lothar Emmerich scored the goals on the 26 February 1966 in front of 30,000 spectators.

Referee: It is a derby premiere for a vey experienced ref: Deniz Aytekin, the 36-year-old FIFA referee from Oberasbach (Bayern), will officiate his 136th Bundesliga match.
Compiled by Boris Rupert