Borussia Monchengladbach welcome Stuttgart to Borussia-Park on Saturday evening for the eighth game of this developing Bundesliga season.
The two sides currently sit in mid-table with the hosts doing slightly better, two points and two positions above their upcoming opponents.
Match preview
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Monchengladbach started the season slowly, taking just one point from their first three games and suffering a heavy 4-0 loss to Bayer Leverkusen during that time.
A first win of the season at home to Arminia Bielefeld saw them turn a corner, though, and they have won three of their four games since, climbing into the top half of the league in the process.
After Marco Rose left for Borussia Dortmund in the summer, Adi Hutter was the man tasked with leading the Foals back into European competition, and the former Eintracht Frankfurt coach will have been pleased to see his side end their poor run of away form last time out at Wolfsburg.
Monchengladbach went into the game having lost all three of their away games so far, but produced an impressive 3-1 victory over the high-flying Wolves thanks to a rapid start which saw Breel Embolo and Jonas Hofmann put the visitors two up by the seven-minute mark.
Wolfsburg got one back but Hutter's men were able to hang on for a crucial win, taking advantage of a red card for Maxence Lacroix to add a third through Joe Scally in stoppage time.
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Stuttgart also went into the international break on a winning note, with a convincing 3-1 victory at home to Hoffenheim, where Marc-Oliver Kempf, Konstantinos Mavropanos and Roberto Massimo grabbed the goals.
They will not come out of the break with that same winning feeling, however, having arranged a friendly with second-tier side Sandhausen during the two-week period and surprisingly lost the game 4-1.
The team have had a mixed campaign so far - Pellegrino Matarazzo made the perfect start to his second season of Bundesliga football, masterminding a 5-1 thrashing of Greuther Furth in the season-opener, but then saw his side struggle to three defeats and two draws.
The win against Hoffenheim dragged them back up to a respectable mid-table slot but Matarazzo will be keen to throw together some more consistent results to ensure the team does not slip back towards the relegation zone.
Two years in the top tier was all The Reds could manage after their previous promotion back in 2017 and they will be determined to stick about for much longer this time around.
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Team News
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Even if full-backs Stefan Lainer and Ramy Bensebaini were fit, they would have a job dislodging American youngster Scally from the Monchengladbach starting lineup after his excellent form so far this season and he will continue at left-back this weekend.
A right-back for Hansi Flick's Germany, Hofmann will almost certainly revert to his more accustomed midfield role for Saturday's game, with Manu Kone making his third successive start alongside.
Denis Zakaria had to leave the Swiss national camp after an injury scare but appears to be fit to start, although Christoph Kramer will be out with a muscle injury.
Matarazzo has an extensive list of absentees to contend with - goalkeeper Florian Muller is the latest of five positive COVID-19 tests at Stuttgart, joining Waldemar Anton, Erik Thommy, Fabian Bredlow and Massimo on the sidelines.
Atakan Karazor started the win over Hoffenheim in midfield, but could revert to defence in the absence of Anton.
Borussia Monchengladbach possible starting lineup:
Sommer; Ginter, Elvedi, Beyer; Scally, Zakaria, Kone, Netz; Hofmann, Stindl; Embolo
Stuttgart possible starting lineup:
Schock; Mavropanos, Karazor, Kempf; Coulibaly, Mangala, Endo, Sosa; Fuhrich, Marmoush; Al Ghaddioui
We say: Borussia Monchengladbach 3-1 Stuttgart
Overall, the hosts come into the match in the better form and with fewer injury worries. We expect them to make home advantage count and wrap up a comfortable win in what should be an entertaining game.
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 Borussia Monchengladbach win with a probability of 49.2%. A win for Stuttgart had a probability of 26.45% and a draw had a probability of 24.3%.
The most likely scoreline for a Borussia Monchengladbach win was 1-0 with a probability of 10.02%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (9.53%) and 2-0 (8.3%). The likeliest Stuttgart win was 0-1 (6.96%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (11.51%). The actual scoreline of 1-1 was predicted with an 11.5% likelihood.
