Saturday's Bundesliga action includes a big relegation battle between Stuttgart and VfL Bochum at the Mercedes Benz Arena.
The hosts remain in a desperate situation during their awful run of form, whilst the visitors continued their rise away from danger with an outstanding victory last weekend.
Match preview
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After previously failing to find the back of the net in five consecutive matches either side of the winter break, Stuttgart have managed to net twice in each of their last two fixtures.
However, conceding a total of seven times against Eintracht Frankfurt and Bayer Leverkusen during those matches has meant that Die Roten have come away empty-handed.
Although Pellegrino Matarazzo's side would not have been expected to pick up many points against two of the European-chasing sides, he will have been disappointed nevertheless after coming away with nothing despite managing to find their goalscoring touch.
Those two recent setbacks have extended Stuttgart's winless streak to seven matches, six of which have now ended in defeat.
As a result, Saturday's hosts head into this huge clash inside the relegation places, with four points now between themselves and Arminia Bielefeld in safety.
Matarazzo and his team perhaps need a bit of fortune to pick up a positive result and reignite their survival hope, but they also need to ensure they put in an all-round solid performance at both ends of the pitch to give themselves the best chance of doing so, beginning on Saturday.
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Meanwhile, Bochum head to the Mercedes Benz Arena on the back of their best result in their recent history, with a fantastic display last Saturday resulting in them defeating league leaders Bayern Munich by a 4-2 scoreline.
After falling behind to a Robert Lewandowski goal inside nine minutes, manager Thomas Reis will have been fearing the worst, and will have been dreading a repeat of the 7-0 defeat in the reverse fixture back in September.
However, goals from Christopher Antwi-Adjei, Jurgen Locadia, Cristian Gamboa and Gerrit Holtmann saw Die Unabsteigbaren remarkably turn it around and race into an incredible 4-1 lead at half time.
The latter two goals in particular were excellent strikes, as Reis's men left the champions shell shocked at the Vonovia Ruhrstadion.
Despite Lewandowski pulling a goal back inside the final 15 minutes, Bochum survived a barrage of late pressure to come away with a memorable three points.
Although, the result was not only positive because of the calibre of their opponents, but also because it was one that saw Bochum consolidate their league position in 11th, and extend their comfort above the relegation zone to six points.
Reis will be hoping his team can stay grounded after last weekend's highs, and will be well aware of the opportunity that Bochum have on Saturday to pull away from danger even further against struggling opposition.
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Team News
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After missing much of the campaign so far through injury, last season's top goalscorer Sasa Kalajdzic had returned to action for Stuttgart in the new year.
However, a calf injury kept the Austrian out of the trip to Leverkusen last weekend, and the striker remains doubtful for Saturday too, with Tiago Tomas set to deputise again after netting twice in only his second game for the club since arriving on loan from Sporting Lisbon in January.
Daniel Didavi, Tanguy Coulibaly and Enzo Millot are all ruled out due to COVID-19, and Omar Marmoush and Waldemar Anton remain doubts due to the virus.
Nikolas Nartey and Mohamed Sankoh remain unavailable due to injury, whilst Roberto Massimo and Lilian Egloff are doubts due to flu and calf problems respectively, in a potentially lengthy absentees list for the hosts.
As for the visitors, Reis is likely to recall first-choice goalkeeper Manuel Riemann after he missed last weekend's incredible victory, with Michael Esser set to drop to the bench as a result.
The only downside on the day was Elvis Rexhbecaj's fifth yellow card of the season, which rules the midfielder out of Saturday's trip due to a one-match suspension.
Milos Pantovic is likely to deputise for Bochum, whose only other absentee is Simon Zoller, with the forward ruled out for the season due to a serious knee injury.
Stuttgart possible starting lineup:
Muller; Stenzel, Mavropanos, Ito; Mvumpa, Endo, Mangala, Sosa; Forster, Fuhrich; Tomas
VfL Bochum possible starting lineup:
Riemann; Gamboa, Bella-Kotchap, Leitsch, Soares; Losilla, Osterhage, Pantovic; Antwi-Adjei, Locadia, Holtmann
We say: Stuttgart 1-1 VfL Bochum
Stuttgart's dreadful run of form, and Bochum's high level of confidence following last weekend, mean we cannot see the hosts picking up a vital three points on Saturday.
The visitors would be pleased with a point, so we can see them putting in a stubborn display to come away level at the Mercedes Benz Arena.
Top tip
Matthew Tranter
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 Stuttgart win with a probability of 39.84%. A win for VfL Bochum had a probability of 35.18% and a draw had a probability of 25%.
The most likely scoreline for a Stuttgart win was 2-1 with a probability of 8.66%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-0 (8.52%) and 2-0 (6.3%). The likeliest VfL Bochum win was 1-2 (8.06%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (11.71%). The actual scoreline of 1-1 was predicted with an 11.7% likelihood. Our team at Sports Mole correctly predicted a 1-1 draw for this match.
