Werder Bremen take on Eintracht Frankfurt in the Bundesliga on Friday, with the visitors looking to extend their winning run to six matches.
Bremen, meanwhile, will be looking to bounce back from last weekend's defeat to Hoffenheim, which has left them only six points above the relegation zone in the table.
Match preview
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Having survived relegation by the skin of their teeth last season, Bremen have been much more competitive this season, with their minus three goal difference ahead of last weekend's trip to Hoffenheim illustrating that their games are often tight encounters.
However, they were humbled by Sebastian Hoeness's side in a devastating 4-0 defeat, with Ihlas Bebou continuing his hot streak in front of goal before Christoph Baumgartner too easily jinked his way into the penalty area before scrambling the ball home to double the hosts' lead prior to half-time.
It would be fair to assess that both Bremen and Hoffenheim prefer playing on the break, so scoring the first goal was always going to be crucial. Munas Dabbur and 18-year-old debutant Georginio Rutter added gloss to the victory in the second half, with Bremen mustering only one shot on target throughout the 90 minutes in perhaps their worst performance of the season.
With Bremen leading a list of six sides within six points of each other, and Mainz 05 gaining serious momentum in the first automatic relegation position, Florian Kohfeldt will be anxious to avoid being sucked into another relegation battle. Their game in hand against Arminia Bielefeld could prove crucial.
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Frankfurt, meanwhile, are flying incredibly high at the moment having won five league games in a row and nine of their last 10 to open up a five-point gap within the Champions League qualification positions.
Indeed, last weekend's 2-1 win over Bayern Munich has blown the title race wide open again, with RB Leipzig only two points behind the league leaders and Wolfsburg and Frankfurt a further five points back.
Adi Hutter's side's win was made all the more impressive given that they were without their injured top goalscorer Andre Silva, although in fairness Bayern were missing several first-team players themselves. Even without his chief partner in crime, though, Filip Kostic still helped himself to yet another assist by squaring the ball for Daichi Kamada to stab the ball home from close range, before Amin Younes fired a superb strike into the top corner to double his side's lead before the break.
Frankfurt nerves would have been jangling throughout the second half, especially after Leroy Sane's superb wing play set up Robert Lewandowski to pull one back after 53 minutes, but Hutter's side showed superb resolve to hold on for a crucial victory which increases their chances of qualifying for the Champions League for the first time in the club's history.
Werder Bremen Bundesliga form: WLWDDL
Werder Bremen form (all competitions): LWDWDL
Eintracht Frankfurt Bundesliga form: DWWWWW
Team News
Bremen will be without Patrick Erras and Luca Plogmann due to injury, but joint-top goalscorer Niclas Fullkrug made his return from injury from the substitutes' bench in the defeat to Hoffenheim.
Kohfeldt may be tempted to throw the 28-year-old into the starting XI, but he could be eased back into things ahead of a cup quarter-final and two hugely significant fixtures against FC Koln and Arminia on the horizon.
Frankfurt, meanwhile, should welcome Silva back to the squad, although his back issues may see Hutter look to utilise him from the bench if required.
The high-flying visitors will travel without the suspended Evan N'Dicka after the defender picked up his fifth caution of the season, with Sebastian Rode potentially moving into the defence and Djibril Sow coming back into the midfield after serving his own suspension against Bayern.
Werder Bremen possible starting lineup:
Pavlenka; Veljkovic, Toprak, Friedl; Gebre Selassie, Eggestein, Mbom, Bittencourt, Agu; Sargent, Rashica
Eintracht Frankfurt possible starting lineup:
Trapp; Tuta, Hinteregger, Rode; Durm, Hasebe, Sow, Kostic; Kamada, Younes; Jovic
We say: Werder Bremen 1-2 Eintracht Frankfurt
We can envisage a narrow Frankfurt victory, with Bremen likely to be fired up by Kohfeldt after last weekend's dismal showing against Hoffenheim.
However, the visitors should have a little too much quality for them regardless, with the likes of Kostic, Kamada and Younes in superb creative form at present.
Top tip
Brett Curtis
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 Eintracht Frankfurt win with a probability of 44.01%. A win for Werder Bremen had a probability of 31.08% and a draw had a probability of 24.9%.
The most likely scoreline for a Eintracht Frankfurt win was 0-1 with a probability of 9.29%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-2 (9.11%) and 0-2 (7.2%). The likeliest Werder Bremen win was 1-0 (7.57%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (11.74%). The actual scoreline of 2-1 was predicted with a 7.4% likelihood.
