Bayern Munich will be looking to extend their advantage at the top of the Bundesliga when they travel to high-flying Hoffenheim on Saturday.
The hosts have won four on the bounce as they go in search of a surprise return to the Champions League, whilst the visitors silenced a few doubters with a thumping win in Europe in midweek.
Match preview
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Hoffenheim strengthened their chances of returning to Europe's grand stage by recording a hard-fought win at fellow top-four hopefuls FC Koln last weekend.
The RheinEnergieStadion is one of the toughest venues to visit in Germany, but despite missing a host of glorious opportunities, Sebastian Hoeness's side came away with all three points thanks to Stefan Posch's goal just after the hour mark.
As mentioned above, the impressive result stretched Hoffenheim's winning streak to four in the Bundesliga, and was one that lifted Die Kraichgauer into fourth place in the table.
Heading into matchday 26 at the weekend, Hoffenheim boast a two-point advantage over their closest chasers RB Leipzig and Freiburg, who drew in their meeting last week, but with the league leaders coming to town, Hoeness's side could well find themselves back outside the top four come the end of the weekend.
However, despite Bayern's decade of dominance in Germany's top flight, Hoffenheim's PreZero Arena is one of the stadiums where their record is not quite so remarkable.
In fact, in the last five fixtures played on Hoffenheim turf, the hosts have come out on top on three occasions, including an emphatic 4-1 triumph in the 2020-21 campaign.
The home side will therefore possess plenty of confidence in their game on Saturday, and a fifth straight win will go a long way to securing a Champions League spot come May should they manage to pull off another upset against the champions.
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Meanwhile, up until Tuesday's visit of Red Bull Salzburg, Bayern would have been heading to the PreZero Arena on the back of their most questionable run of form all season.
The Bavarians had only lost once in their previous five, which is hardly a disaster, but considering the standards that have been set at the Allianz Arena across the nine consecutive title wins, the drop in performance levels and results has certainly stood out.
A shock 4-2 defeat at newly-promoted VfL Bochum was the most remarkable result of the Bundesliga season so far, and after stumbling to a 1-1 draw at Salzburg thanks to Kingsley Coman's late equaliser a few days later, doubts began to creep in regarding Bayern's complacency.
Although the back-to-back setbacks were followed up by successive wins over Greuther Furth and Eintracht Frankfurt, both results were far from convincing, and Julian Nagelsmann's league leaders were some distance away from their usual excellence.
A 1-1 draw at home to Bayer Leverkusen last weekend followed, and with Borussia Dortmund's match at Mainz 05 being postponed, Bayern missed the chance to extend their lead at the summit to 11 points.
Instead, Saturday's visitors boast a nine-point advantage in their pursuit of a 10th successive Bundesliga title, but with BVB possessing that game in hand, the push for the title remains a two-horse race for the time being.
However, when doubts begin to surface around this Bayern machine, their true brilliance is unveiled, and that is exactly what was put on show for the doubters to witness when they welcomed Salzburg to the Allianz Arena on Tuesday.
A 7-1 hammering later, largely thanks to a Robert Lewandowski hat-trick inside the opening 23 minutes, and the questions were brushed away for now, but the Bavarians will be eager to follow that up with another statement win at a tricky venue on Saturday.
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Team News
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Hoffenheim could well miss a couple of key defenders again this weekend, with captain Benjamin Hubner likely to remain out due to COVID-19, whilst Chris Richards's availability against his parent club remains to be seen despite a return to training.
Ermin Bicakcic, Havard Nordtveit, Sebastian Rudy and Robert Skov all remain sidelined, but Dennis Geiger is in contention to return to the midfield following a head injury.
After missing several chances last weekend, Ihlas Bebou could drop out of the starting 11, with 19-year-old Georginio Rutter an option to deputise should Hoeness look to utilise his pace on the break.
As for the visitors, Manuel Neuer is back between the posts following his return to the side on Tuesday, and Corentin Tolisso and Leon Goretzka are also nearing returns from respective injuries.
The duo are unlikely to return on Saturday though, despite a return to training, whilst Alphonso Davies remains unavailable for the foreseeable future due to his ongoing heart problems.
Nagelsmann could therefore name the same starting 11 that won so convincingly in midweek, which means Dayot Upamecano may have to settle for a place amongst the substitutes once more.
Hoffenheim possible starting lineup:
Baumann; Posch, Grillitsch, Akpoguma; Kaderabek, Baumgartner, Samassekou, Stiller, Raum; Rutter, Kramaric
Bayern Munich possible starting lineup:
Neuer; Pavard, Sule, Hernandez; Kimmich, Musiala; Gnabry, Muller, Sane, Coman; Lewandowski
We say: Hoffenheim 1-3 Bayern Munich
Hoffenheim are likely to cause this shaky Bayern defence some problems on Saturday, especially given their excellent recent form, but with several defensive absentees, they could struggle to contain this deadly opposition strikeforce.
If Lewandowski and co can replicate their exceptional standards of midweek, then there's no reason why Bayern will not stroll to another comfortable victory despite the calibre of their hosts.
Top tip
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 Bayern Munich win with a probability of 60.65%. A win for Hoffenheim had a probability of 20.25% and a draw had a probability of 19.1%.
The most likely scoreline for a Bayern Munich win was 1-2 with a probability of 9.3%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-3 (7.3%) and 0-2 (7.09%). The likeliest Hoffenheim win was 2-1 (5.18%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (7.9%). The actual scoreline of 1-1 was predicted with a 7.9% likelihood.
