Borussia Dortmund go into a Bundesliga matchday for the 148th time at the table apex. Hertha Berlin are their opponent for the first home match of the season at 18:30 CEST in the Signal Iduna Park. Here, all the facts on the game.

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Marcel Schmelzer is still unable to play today

How things stand: Both teams won their first games without conceding. BVB won 4-0 in the cup, and also defeated Wolfsburg away 3-0 in their opening game of the season. Hertha defeated Rostock in the cup and Stuttgart in the league, both 2-0.

Home and away: Across seasons, BVB are undefeated in 38 home games (31 wins, seven draws). Their last defeat at home came on 4 April 2015, when they lost 0-1 to Bayern Munich. Hertha have lost nine of their last ten away fixtures.

Personnel: BVB must play without Reus, Schmelzer, Guerreiro, Schürrle, Weigl, Rode and Durm. Hertha are missing Klinsmann, Mittelstädt, Lazaro, Schieber and Selke.

Head to head: Hertha BSC have been no favourite of BVB to play against in recent times. They only took one point from them last season (1-1, 1-2), and in a cup match it also stood 1-1 after 120 minutes.Their record against Hertha at home since the beginning of the 2011/12 season is perfectly even (two wins, one draw, two defeats), their weakest against any club. Mario Götze has never lost against Hertha (five wins, one draw), and he has scored twice across those fixtures. Mo Dahoud has won all three of his games against the Berlin men. Both Neven Subotic and Ömer Toprak scored their last Bundesliga goal against the capital city club. Berlin's total number of goals conceded has only reached three figures against three clubs, Borussia, Bayern, and Bremen.

Statistics: The Black and Yellows are undefeated in seven across seasons (last defeat on 8 April 2017, 4-1 away at Munich), have only failed to score in one game out of their last 26, and have not lost one of their last 31 matches in which they were first onto the scoresheet. Their last defeat after taking a 1-0 lead was on 19.12.2015, 2-1 away in Cologne. By contrast, Hertha have lost the last 12 games in which they conceded the first goal. The last time they took points in such circumstances was on 3.12.2016, a 3-2 win away at Wolfsburg.

Greatest win: On 19 October 1963, Borussia Dortmund wiped the floor with Hertha, defeating them 7-2 in the Rote Erde stadium. 28,000 Spectators watched from the stands as Rylewicz scored the first goal of the game in the 11' minute, converting a penalty kick due to a hand ball. Rühl did manage to equalise (21'), but the Black and Yellows then hit back. Emmerich (22'), Schmidt (29'), and Konitzka (44') all scored before half-time. In the second half, Sturm, Emmerich, and Konietzka all added to the tally.

Referee: Marco Fritz officiates his 16th Bundesliga match involving BVB, his 112th in total. He has overseen "Dortmund vs. Berlin" three times already, their head to head record being perfectly balanced under his stewardship.
Compiled by Boris Rupert