Borussia Monchengladbach will be looking to return to winning ways in the Bundesliga when they travel to a relegation-threatened Werder Bremen on Tuesday night.
Gladbach suffered a 3-1 defeat at home to Bayer Leverkusen on Saturday to drop out of the top four, while Bremen occupy 17th position in the table despite picking up an important win against Freiburg last time out.
Match preview
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Bremen have not operated outside of the Bundesliga since the 1980-81 campaign, but it would be fair to say that the team are very much in a relegation battle during the 2019-20 season.
A total of 21 points from 26 matches has left them in 17th position, three points behind 16th-placed Fortuna Dusseldorf, who threw away a two-goal lead to draw 2-2 with Koln in Sunday's late start.
Bremen are six points from the safety of 15th position, although they have a game in hand on every team in the division other than Eintracht Frankfurt, who are also in the relegation mix at this stage.
Florian Kohfeldt's side will enter Tuesday's match off the back of an impressive victory at Freiburg, though, and they beat Borussia Dortmund on home soil in the German Cup in February.
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Gladbach would have been looking to cement their spot in the top four when they welcomed Leverkusen on Saturday afternoon, but the visitors - inspired by the excellent Kai Havertz - recorded an impressive 3-1 victory.
Marco Rose's side beat Frankfurt 3-1 on their return to Bundesliga action last weekend, though, and have been victorious in three of their last five in Germany's top flight to leave themselves in a decent spot.
Indeed, Gladbach are currently fifth in the table, just one point off fourth-placed Leverkusen and two behind third-placed RB Leipzig, who put five unanswered goals past Mainz 05 on Sunday.
Rose's team are actually only five points off Dortmund in second, meanwhile, and only the top two sides have picked up more league victories than the four-time Bundesliga champions this season.
Die Fohlen are also unbeaten in their last eight Bundesliga meetings with Bremen and recorded a 3-1 victory when the pair met in the reverse match back in November.
Werder Bremen Bundesliga form: LLLDLW
Werder Bremen form (all competitions): LLLDLW
Gladbach Bundesliga form: DWLWWL
Team News
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Davy Klaassen returned from suspension against Freiburg at the weekend, and the Dutchman's impressive performance should see him keep his spot in the middle of the Bremen midfield.
There will once again be eyes on Milot Rashica, who has scored 10 times and registered five assists in 26 appearances this season. Liverpool are thought to be keen on the Kosovo international, who is expected to line up on the left of a front three.
Bremen do have injury problems ahead of the clash, though, with Ludwig Augustinsson, Claudio Pizarro, Omer Toprak, Niclas Fullkrug and Kevin Mohwald all expected to miss out.
Philipp Bargfrede is also suspended after being sent off late on against Freiburg.
As for Gladbach, Fabian Johnson and Denis Zakaria are both still on the sidelines through injury, but the visitors did not pick up any fresh concerns in the defeat to Leverkusen.
Rose is expected to resist the temptation to make wholesale changes for Tuesday's affair, although Laszlo Benes is pushing for a spot in the middle of midfield.
Lars Stindl could also replace Breel Embolo in the XI, although the bulk of the side is expected to remain the same with Marcus Thuram and Alassane Plea again featuring in the final third.
Bremen possible starting lineup:
Pavlenka; Gebre Selassie, Veljkovic, Moisander, Freidl; Eggestein, Vogt, Klaassen; Bittencourt, Sargent, Rashica
Gladbach possible starting lineup:
Sommer; Lainer, Ginter, Elvedi, Bensebaini; Neuhaus, Benes; Thuram, Stindl, Hofmann; Plea
We say: Werder Bremen 1-2 Borussia Monchengladbach
Bremen picked up an impressive victory against Freiburg, but there is no getting away from the fact that they have lost 15 of their 26 league games this term. Gladbach will be determined to return to winning ways, and we expect the visitors to pick up an important three points at Weserstadion.
Matt Law
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Borussia Monchengladbach win with a probability of 56.23%. A win for Werder Bremen had a probability of 22.05% and a draw had a probability of 21.7%.
The most likely scoreline for a Borussia Monchengladbach win was 1-2 with a probability of 9.84%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 0-1 (8.6%) and 0-2 (8.48%). The likeliest Werder Bremen win was 2-1 (5.79%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (9.98%). The actual scoreline of 0-0 was predicted with a 4.4% likelihood.
