25 points and ten league positions separated these two sides last season in the German top flight, and the hosts are priced at 4.5 to get off to a winning start. Dortmund come in as 1.72 favourites. 

• Guirassy scored the only goal for Dortmund in pre-season, as Dortmund beat Rot-Weiss Essen 1-0. 

• Dortmund took six points from St Pauli last season, winning by an aggregate score of 4-1 over the two league fixtures. 

• Guirassy accounted for two of those goals, getting on the scoresheet in both games. 

🟤 A Fresh Look for Kiezkicker

St Pauli have been picked apart during the summer transfer window, losing top-scorer Morgan Guilavogui to Lens in a bizarre transfer saga. St Pauli activated a buy clause following a loan spell last season, after which Lens immediately activated a buy-back clause to bring Guilavogui back to France. Philipp Treu is another notable departure, as the fullback featured in 33 league matches last season. The further loss of Elias Saad, Noah Weisshaupt and Johannes Eggestein leaves St Pauli in a predicament up front, light on attacking players. 

Kiezkicker has been active in the market themselves with 10 incoming signings, including Joel Chima Fujita, who arrives from Sint-Truiden for a club record fee of £2.6 million. While this all shows the right intent, it will be difficult for St Pauli to replace their key players from last season - it may also take a while to adjust to such a magnitude of change.

🟡 Kovac to Pick Up Where He Left Off

Following a poor first half of the season, Nuri Sahin was sacked as Dortmund manager in January, and Niko Kovac was brought in as his replacement. Initially, it took some time for the former Bayern boss to find his feet - four league losses in his first six had the Black and Yellows sitting 11th in March. But it was smooth sailing after that, and Kovac transformed Dortmund into one of the most in-form teams in Europe. 

The key to their improvement was the switch from a 4-2-3-1 formation, to a 3-4-2-1, which left Dortmund less exposed in transition with the extra centre back, without compromising their attacking output. In addition to their impressive league run, Dortmund managed to get to the quarter-final stage in both the Champions League and Club World Cup, before being knocked out by Barcelona and Real Madrid, respectively.

📊 St Pauli v Dortmund H2H

These two sides have met six times in the Bundesliga, and Dortmund have won five of those matches, netting a total of 12 goals. St Pauli last took points off Dortmund back in 2002, in a game which finished 1-1. 

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* I recommend waiting for confirmed team line-ups before placing any bets.

* All odds displayed correct at the time of publishing.