Preview: Hoffenheim vs Stuttgart - prediction, team news, lineups

TSG 1899 Hoffenheim welcome VfB Stuttgart to the PreZero Arena in Sinsheim on Saturday for a Bundesliga Matchday 3 encounter that could quickly define the early-season trajectory of both clubs.

Christian Ilzer's Die Kraichgauer arrive without a league point after two successive 3-2 defeats, making this fixture an already urgent test of nerve at home, while Sebastian Hoeness's Stuttgart roll in off the back of their most electric performance in months: a 3-1 Champions League opening-night victory over Viking in which Ermedin Demirovic scored a hat-trick in 12 first-half minutes.

Match preview

Last season was Hoffenheim's best Bundesliga campaign in nearly a decade: 18 wins, seven draws and nine defeats produced 61 points and a fifth-place finish, good enough for Europa League football this term after missing the Champions League places by a single point.

Ilzer's side have strengthened with the arrivals of Patrick Wimmer, Mats Rots, Adam Daghim, Arthur Lenz and Kaspar Vogt, and crucially retained Fisnik Asllani after his proposed summer move to RB Leipzig collapsed, a piece of transfer business that could prove as significant as any new signing across the course of the campaign.

The pre-season optimism has not yet translated to three points, however. A DFB-Pokal victory over Erzgebirge Aue offered an early boost, but Die Kraichgauer have since shipped six league goals without keeping a clean sheet: a 3-2 opening-day defeat was followed last Saturday by another 3-2 reverse at home to Borussia Dortmund, a result made all the more painful by the fact that Hoffenheim led 2-0 after 54 minutes before collapsing.

There are genuine attacking positives, eight goals across their three competitive fixtures suggests the forward line retains the potency that made Die Kraichgauer such a threat last term but the defensive unit has looked alarmingly porous without the protection it needs, and Ilzer will know that consecutive dropped home points against teams of genuine quality will not be tolerated indefinitely.

The broader context is also demanding: Hoffenheim face a trip to SC Paderborn on September 20 and open their Europa League campaign away at OFI Crete on September 17, so a first league win on Saturday carries added weight in terms of preventing a full-blown early-season crisis from forming.

Stuttgart finished fourth in the Bundesliga in 2025-26 to secure their return to the Champions League, bouncing back impressively from a difficult ninth-placed campaign the previous season, a turnaround that vindicated the decision to retain Hoeness despite widespread speculation over his future following the club's 2024-25 struggles.

Die Roten began the current season with a 4-0 DFB-Pokal dismantling of Hansa Rostock, in which new forward Dzenan Pejcinovic, signed from Hamburger SV over the summer scored a debut hat-trick, before they were brought back to earth by a 5-1 battering at Bayern Munich on Bundesliga opening day.

They responded with a thumping 4-1 home win over Koln last weekend, with Ermedin Demirovic coming off the bench to score, and then delivered the most emphatic possible statement of intent on Tuesday: Demirovic, starting for the first time this season, struck in the 20th, 26th and 32nd minutes to give Stuttgart a 3-1 half-time lead against Viking that they protected with authority in the second half, completing the first Champions League hat-trick of the new campaign.

The Bosnian international's second and third goals both arrived via the underside of the crossbar after incisive Deniz Undav through-balls, and his treble, completed in 31 minutes and 21 seconds was the fifth-earliest hat-trick in Champions League history.

Hoeness now faces an enviable selection question for the trip to Sinsheim: Pejcinovic started Stuttgart's two Bundesliga games and performed well enough that benching him for Demirovic risks disrupting genuine momentum, yet leaving out a player who has just scored three times in 12 Champions League minutes would be equally difficult to justify.

Hoffenheim Bundesliga form:

Hoffenheim form (all competitions):

Stuttgart Bundesliga form:

Stuttgart form (all competitions):

Team News

Ilzer's injury concerns centre on two absentees who have missed large portions of the season already: right-back Valentin Gendrey remains sidelined with an ankle problem, while Japan international centre-back Koki Machida has been out since suffering an anterior cruciate ligament tear last season and is not yet back in first-team contention.

Captain and club record scorer Andrej Kramaric, who underwent groin surgery in early July following the 2026 World Cup in which he represented Croatia, have been managed carefully after an extended preseason absence, but could replace Tim Lemperle who suffered an injury against Borussia Dortmund.

Stuttgart head into the fixture with a growing injury list of at least six unavailable players including Dennis Seimen, Luca Jaquez, and Lorenz Assignon.

Defenders Dan-Axel Zagadou, Nikolas Nartey and Jeremy Arevalo are also sidelined.

Hoffenheim possible starting lineup:

Baumann; Coufal, Kabak, Hajdari, M. Rots; Avdullahu, Burger; Wimmer, Daghim; Hlozek, Kramaric

Stuttgart possible starting lineup:

Bredlow; Jeltsch, Chabot, Mittelstadt, Vagnoman; Promel, Stiller; Leweling, El Khannouss, Undav; Demirovic

We say: Hoffenheim 1-2 Stuttgart

The last time this fixture produced a winner was in March 2024 when Stuttgart won 3-0 at the PreZero Arena, and four consecutive draws since then, including a chaotic 3-3 in May 2026 underline how closely matched these sides tend to be.

This weekend, however, the balance of evidence leans Stuttgart's way: Hoffenheim have conceded three goals in each of their two league games while Stuttgart arrive with four Demirovic goals in under a week, a settled midfield structure built around Angelo Stiller and the psychological confidence that a Champions League win brings into a domestic fixture.

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