The U23s will follow up their narrow but deserved away victory over the Borussia Mönchengladbach U23s with another away day on Saturday. The BVB reserves, coached by Jan Siewert, will take on Wuppertaler SV at the Stadion am Zoo at the unusual kick-off time of 16:00 CET.

The hosts currently occupy sixth spot in the table, four points adrift of fourth-placed BVB despite having played one game more. The reverse fixture earlier in the season clearly indicated that both teams are capable of playing at a similarly high level. WSV surged into a 2-0 lead in Dortmund that day before Beyhan Ametov and Patrick Mainka scored in a matter of minutes to secure a 2-2 draw. All in all, the spectators witnessed a high-quality Regionalliga encounter played at a high tempo and with lots of attacking momentum.

There will be personnel changes for BVB on Saturday due to the congested nature of the fixture schedule. One player who will be back in action is Massimo Ornatelli, who was suspended on Wednesday after accumulating five bookings.

The Black & Yellows will need to keep a close eye on Christopher Kramer on Saturday. The 28-year-old centre-forward has already found the net on 14 occasions this season, setting up four goals as well. He currently occupies second-place in the goal-scoring charts.

The task for BVB will be to carry the momentum from their games against Wiedenbrück and Mönchengladbach into this weekend's clash at the tradition-steeped Stadion am Zoo, which sits in the shadow of the Wuppertal suspension railway.
Timo Lammert