BVB in the Kraichgau: Battle of the 13th bests | OneFootball

The scenario: Leipzig in Frankfurt, Freiburg in Wolfsburg, Mainz in Munich and Dortmund in Sinsheim: the teams in positions 4 to 7 are all away from home on Matchday 31. Seventh-placed Dortmund could potentially climb up to fifth position. Hoffenheim, meanwhile, are in 15th place in the table with an eight-point cushion over the relegation play-off place.

Home/away: Hoffenheim are unbeaten in four home games. The last of their six home defeats to date was a 4-0 loss to Union Berlin on 8 February. TSG occupy 13th position in the home table with four victories, five draws and six defeats. The Black & Yellows have lost only one of their last four Bundesliga away games but are still down in 13th position in the away table, with a record of four wins, three draws and eight defeats.

Head-to-head record: Borussia Dortmund have won five of their last seven Bundesliga meetings with Hoffenheim. BVB have won on their last four visits to Sinsheim.

Statistics: Hoffenheim have won only one of their last six league games (2-0 against Mainz on 12 April) but have consistently shown spirit throughout the season: TSG have taken points from seven games in which they fell behind (league high). Borussia Dortmund have taken 10 out of a possible 12 points from their last four matches (three wins and one draw). Their most recent defeat was by a 2-0 scoreline in Leipzig on 15 March.

Reverse fixture: Following a disappointing first half, BVB needed only 34 seconds after the restart to open the scoring through Giovanni Reyna. But they were subsequently unable to settle into their usual game and conceded an equaliser through Jacob Bruun Larsen in stoppage time – it was Hoffenheim's only shot on target.

Last season: The 30,150 spectators at the sold-out Prezero Arena saw BVB twice take the lead thanks to goals from Niclas Füllkrug (18) and Marco Reus (45+3) – Andrej Kramarić had levelled the scores at 1-1 in the 25th minute – and defend with only 10 men from the 71st minute onwards following Ramy Bensebaini's sending-off. Deep into the seven minutes of stoppage time, Julian Ryerson sealed the victory with a wonderful solo effort (90+5). It was also BVB's joint-biggest away victory in the Kraichgau. They had also managed a 3-1 win in December 2012 thanks to goals from Mario Götze (26), Kevin Großkreutz (58) and Robert Lewandowski (66). Sven Schipplock had made it 1-1 (35)Compiled by Boris Rupert