Borussia Monchengladbach host Schalke 04 in the Bundesliga in Saturday's late kickoff, with Marco Rose's side looking to return to winning ways in order to move up the table.
The visitors, meanwhile, are marooned to the bottom of the league having failed to win any of their opening eight matches.
Match preview
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Despite excelling in the Champions League, with Wednesday's 4-0 win over Shakhtar Donetsk taking Gladbach four points ahead of the third-placed Ukrainians in Group B with only two games remaining, Marco Rose's side have had a fairly frustrating start to their league campaign.
That was perfectly embodied by last weekend's 1-1 draw at home to Augsburg. Breel Embolo was wasteful in front of goal on several occasions, with the Switzerland striker's lovely turn and touch in the opening exchanges helping him buy a yard of space, but he could only fire straight at opposing goalkeeper Rafal Gikiewicz. Florian Neuhaus made no such mistake in the fifth minute, though, burying his chance straight into the top corner from the edge of the area.
Embolo should have extended his side's lead in the second half, first when being played through on goal by Patrick Hermann only to place his effort too close to Gikiewicz once again, before he finally found a way of getting past the Augsburg goalkeeper by rounding him, only to side-foot his strike into the side netting.
Embolo's profligacy looked like going unpunished when Augsburg substitute Raphael Framberger was sent off after receiving his second yellow in the 66th minute, but some truly woeful defending in the 88th minute allowed Daniel Caligiuri's deflected effort to earn the visitors an unlikely point.
Rose's side have now won only one of four home league matches this season, drawing the other three against sides they would be expected to beat, which is a record that simply must improve if they are to finish in the top four and qualify for the Champions League once again.
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In truth, Gladbach would be hard pressed to find a more fitting opponent to claim a routine home win against than Schalke at present, with the side struggling on and off the pitch.
Manuel Baum's side are yet to win in the Bundesliga this season, with the club's winless league run now stretching to an astonishing 24 matches. That record never looked close to ending in the 2-0 home defeat to Wolfsburg last weekend, with the visitors starting the match in typically fast fashion through Wout Weghorst's third-minute opener. The Netherlands striker simply had too much space to stoop with his head from a corner, then almost doubling Oliver Glasner's side's lead two minutes later when he fired narrowly wide.
After Renato Steffen powered his header straight at Frederik Ronnow, Weghorst's heavy touch fell into the path of Xaver Schlager, who made no such mistake by firing inside the far post. Baum's side did at least rally a little bit in the second half, with Goncalo Pacienca's beautiful touch and turn not quite matched by his finish, before Benito Raman struck the bar from distance, but a comeback never looked on the cards.
Schalke may take encouragement from Gladbach's recent home struggles, but it will almost certainly require an incredibly disciplined defensive display in order to gain a positive result from the game.
Borussia Monchengladbach Bundesliga form: WDWWLD
Borussia Monchengladbach form (all competitions): WDWWLW
Schalke 04 Bundesliga form: LDLDDL
Schalke 04 form (all competitions): DLDWDL
Team News
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Jonas Hofmann remains out for Gladbach with the torn muscle he sustained on international duty with Germany earlier this month.
Rose will also be without Hannes Wolf and Ramy Bensebaini due to illness, meaning that Oscar Wendt will continue at left-back.
Alassane Plea produced a negative coronavirus test in time to feature from the bench against Shakhtar, so could be in line to return to the starting XI in place of Embolo.
Schalke, meanwhile, are faring better on the injury front than they are results, with only Alessandro Schopf ruled out due to a calf injury.
However, summer signing Vedad Ibisevic will seemingly not play for the club again after the club's sporting director Jochen Schneider announced the 36-year-old will have his contract terminated at the end of December.
Former Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Nabil Bentaleb and Morocco international Amine Harit are also extremely unlikely to feature, having both been ordered to train alone following a bust-up with assistant coach Naldo during training.
Borussia Monchengladbach possible starting lineup:
Sommer; Lainer, Ginter, Elvedi, Wendt; Kramer, Neuhaus; Herrmann, Stindl, Thuram; Plea
Schalke 04 possible starting lineup:
Ronnow; Thiauw, Sane, Nastasic; Ludewig, Oczipka, Mascareli, Serdar, Bozdogan; Pacienca, Uth
We say: Borussia Monchengladbach 2-0 Schalke 04
We expect Gladbach to get back to winning ways in comfortable fashion, with a clean sheet likely to be at the top of Rose's priority list.
Should Marcus Thuram and Plea both start in attack, the hosts should simply have too much quality for Schalke, who have been rocked by turmoil off the pitch this week.
