Bundesliga Weekend Preview: Round 15

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Friday 28th November (all times local)

20:30  Hertha Berlin – 1.FC Köln 

Saturday 29th November

15:30  Bayer Leverkusen – Bayern Munich 

15:30  Werder Bremen – Eintracht Frankfurt

15:30  Hannover - Karlsruhe

15:30  Bor.Mönchengladbach – Energie Cottbus

15:30  1899 Hoffenheim – Arminia Bielefeld  

Sunday 30th November

17:00  VfB Stuttgart – Schalke

17:00  VfL Bochum – Hamburg

17:00  Borussia Dortmund – Wolfsburg    

Hertha Berlin – 1.FC Köln   

The Friday action sees high-flying Hertha Berlin hosting Köln at the Olympiastadion looking to wrap up another three points. The ‘Old Lady’ have made their best start to a Bundesliga season in many years and they currently sit fourth, just four points off the top.  

Lucien Favre’s side have won their last three matches so are on a bit of as roll at the moment and will fancy their chances of making it four on the trot with the visit of Köln.   

It remains unclear whether Cicero or Voronin will feature as both are suffering from flu. A last minute decision will be taken.  

Köln lie slap bang in the middle of the table in 10th with six wins and seven losses. Christoph Daum may look to vary his line-up bringing in Ehret on the left and Broich into the midfield. Antar would then take the position behind Novakovic up front. Kevin McKenna is suspended.        

Bayer Leverkusen – Bayern Munich   

The top game of the weekend takes place at the Bay-Arena with second placed Bayer Leverkusen playing host to third place Bayern Munich. 

This will be a real test of just how seriously Bruno Labbadia’s side can be taken as title contenders this season.  There was a similar game last season when Bayern absolutely played Bayer off the park and put them well and truly in their place. That loss seemed to signal the start of the slide, which eventually saw Michael Skibbe’s side fail to qualify for Europe.   

Bayern face Leverkusen this Saturday, before they face Hoffenheim in the last match before the winter break and two wins against their rivals would possibly see them crowned winter champions, which seemed very unlikely a few months back when all the talk was of a Bayern crisis.   

The team news is that Bayern will be without Martin Demichelis, Mark van Bommel and Lukas Podolski, whereas Bruno Labbadia will welcome back Gonzalo Castro after his suspension. Sascha Dum though is out after his red card last weekend.

Werder Bremen – Eintracht Frankfurt  

After their defeat in the Nordderby last weekend and their draw in Cyprus in the Champions League in midweek, Thomas Schaaf has to turn his attention to winning three points in the Bundesliga against Frankfurt.   

Werder are still unable to fire on all cylinders at the moment and if they carry on in this vein they may end up finishing the first half of the season in the bottom half of the table.   

Tim Wiese is still out injured so Christian Vander will continue to deputise. Özil serves the second match of his suspension, while Petri Pasanen also sits out with a thigh problem.  

Frankfurt are just four points behind Werder, which is remarkable considering the atrocious start they made to the season. Friedhelm Funkel saw his side beat Hannover 4-0 last weekend following their previous 4-0 loss to Dortmund.   

He may decide to line-up with a more defensive side as opposed to the Hannover game meaning Toski could come in for Caio.    

Hannover – Karlsruhe  

13th place Hannover entertain Karlsruhe on Saturday looking for an important three points. With just two wins in their previous nine matches, Dieter Hecking’s side are in need of a win this weekend.  

They will however have to do without the services of  forwards Jan Schlaudraff and Mikael Forssell, both of whom are injured. They join Robert Enke, Vinicius, Altin Lala, Michael Tarnat, Jiri Stajner, and Valerien Ismael on the treatment table   

Karlsruhe find themselves in the bottom two following a run which has seen them lose seven of their last eight games. Things looked to have improved after they fought back to draw with Bayer Leverkusen two weeks ago, but successive defeats to Cottbus and Dortmund have kept the dark cloud hanging over the club.  

Maik Franz and Godfried Aduobe will be missing for Edmund Becker’s side.  

Bor.Mönchengladbach – Energie Cottbus  

This basement battle at the Borussia-Park will see both trainers desperate for three points. Cottbus are bottom of the heap right now, but Gladbach are only two points better off in 15th. 

Hans Meyer’s side were beaten 3-1 by Schalke last weekend after getting a superb point against Bayern Munich the week previously. This could turn out to be a real six-pointer against fellow strugglers Cottbus.  

Meyer is likely to revert to a back four with Voigt possibly giving way to van den Bergh. Jaures and Neuville are both unavailable.  

Cottbus were on the receiving end of a vintage Bayern Munich performance last weekend and even though they took a shock lead, it really was one-way traffic and they went down to a 4-1 defeat. 

They will have to dig deep and carry on believing if they are to get anything from the Borussia Park.  

Bojan Prasnikar has Dimitar Angelov back in the squad following injury, but he will make the bench at best. Vragel da Silva is out injured, while Igor Mitreski remains internally suspended.    

1899 Hoffenheim – Arminia Bielefeld  

The goals keep flying in from Hoffenheim and they regained top spot last Saturday with their 3-1 win over Köln. Vedad Ibisevic has grabbed a remarkable 16 goals in 14 games this season and the Hoffenheim bubble shows no signs of bursting anytime soon.  

Full back Andreas Beck is back following his suspension, while Vorsah could come in for Luiz Gustavo. Chinedu Obasi and Ibertsberger were only able to return to training on Thursday so should miss out. The inclusion of Carlos Eduardo is a doubt as he has flu.    

Bielefeld will want to build upon the impressive win they achieved last weekend against Bayer Leverkusen this Saturday. Michael Frontzeck’s side would take a massive amount of self-confidence from beating the current top two in successive weeks.  

Halfar could start for the Arminen following his excellent display last week as a sub, while Tesche is once again on hand after he completed his suspension.  

VfB Stuttgart – Schalke  

Stuttgart will face Schalke at the Mercedes Benz Arena in their first league match since the sacking of trainer Armin Veh last weekend. The Swabians 2007 championship winning trainer was released following their 4-1 loss to Wolfsburg last weekend with Markus Babbel taking control.  

They secured a draw in midweek holding Sampdoria 1-1 in Genoa in their Uefa Cup Group C encounter. 

Babbel will be without the services of Ludovic Magnin, Yildiray Bastürk and youngster Sebastian Rudy.  

Schalke will look to take advantage of the upset at Stuttgart and take three points, which could see them breaking into the top five. The Königsblauen were disappointing in midweek, going down to a 2-0 home defeat to Manchester City in the Uefa Cup. 

Trainer Fred Rutten is expected to name an unchanged line-up, although Marcelo Bordon may sit this one out after limping off against Manchester City on Thursday.      

VfL Bochum – Hamburg  

Bochum find themselves in the bottom three following their failure to win any of their last nine league games. 16th position at the end of the season would mean a play-off against the third placed second division side, so they will want to get up the table as quick as possible.  

Marcell Koller has already announced that changes will be made to the team which lost to Hertha. Fuchs and Sestak will come in for Bönig and Sinan, although other underperformers could also be dropped.  

Hamburg will be delighted with their 2-1 win in the derby against Werder last Sunday, but will less impressed with their recent away form in the Bundesliga, or with the 1-0 home loss their incurred on Thursday against Ajax in the Uefa Cup.  

Martin Jol’s line-up will depend largely on the strains of their Uefa Cup on Thursday.  

Borussia Dortmund - Wolfsburg  

The final game of the weekend sees Borussia Dortmund hosting Wolfsburg at the Signal-Iduna Park. 

Dortmund’s narrow 1-0 win against Bochum last Friday saw them up into sixth and Jürgen Klopp will now be targeting a place in the top five.  

Nelson Valdez looks to be winning his fitness battle, while Sebastian Kehl will be given a fitness test on Thursday. If he can’t play, then Tinga will fill in.  

Wolfsburg too are hitting a patch of form right now with three wins from their last four outings. A difficult task awaits them in Dortmund, but Felix Magath will be demanding a continuation to their winning run.

Mathew Burt