Borussia Dortmund's trip to 1. FSV Mainz 05 on Saturday (15:30 CET, live on the Net Radio) marks the start of the final stretch of games before the winter break. The fixture list is marginally less hectic than it was before the break, with eight games to be played in the space of 28 days, but it is still a big boost to have (almost) all the players fully fit!

But more important than the personnel is the attitude, according to sporting director Michael Zorc, who had a few words of warning for the players at the press conference on Thursday. "There's no reason to abandon our approach of taking each game as it comes." While the victory over Bayern Munich was a confidence boost − "And it's okay to show that" − that "does not mean that it'll automatically be a 2-0 win for us in Mainz at 15:30, simply because we performed so well beforehand. We need to remain absolutely focused, start from scratch and not change anything." Zorc subsequently declared: "It's imperative that we're even more focused right now than in an English week."

His viewpoint is shared by Lucien Favre, who responded to the statement by his Mainz counterpart Sandro Schwarz that even unbeaten league leaders Borussia Dortmund are "beatable" with a smile and a clear "yes". "There's still a lot to work on," added the Swiss tactician. (br)