“The two leaders of the chasing pack came head to head in this encounter. Both teams were galvanised by Gladbach’s shock 3-1 victory over runaway leaders Bayern Munich and were eager to close the gap on the Bavarians. Despite Wolfsburg’s phenomenal home record prior to this game (29 league games unbeaten), Thomas Tuchel’s reinvigorated Borussia Dortmund side were many people’s favourites going into this game with striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in lethal form with 17 goals in 14 Bundesliga matches. Both sides were without key players, Wolfsburg were unable to rely on Dante who was absent through suspension while BVB were missing centre-back Mats Hummels who was replaced by Sven Bender; a peculiar decision at first but one which seemed to make more sense as the game wore on and proved to be problematic for Wolfsburg.” Outside of the Boot
