Match preview here.

Starting formations

Werder Bremen (4-4-2 diamond, from right to left): Wiese; Clemens Fritz, François Affolter, Sokratis Papastathopoulos, Florian Hartherz; Phillipp Bargfrede; Aleksandr Ignjovski, Tom Trybull; Mehmet Ekici; Markus Rosenborg, Pizarro

Bayer Leverkusen (4-4-2 diamond, from right to left): Bernd Leno; Danny da Costa, Daniel Schwaab, Manuel Friedrich, Michal Kadlec; Stefan Reinartz; Gonzalo Castro, Simon Rolfes; Bender; Stefan Kießling, André Schürrle

With both coaches setting out their sides in identical formations, the opening 15 minutes were intriguing, albeit free of goalmouth action. Out of possession, both sides pressed well, keeping the ball mainly in and around the centre-circle area, and ensuring that Leno and Wiese had little to do during the first quarter. The visitors’ play looked the more promising of either side, though, with their one-time passing moves occasionally neat and effective, and their passing accuracy far higher than that of Bremen’s, who looked stodgy and shorn of ideas and belief.

Leverkusen were also the only side looking to take advantage of the space available down the flanks, although they didn’t do this with  enough regularity in the opening 20 minutes or so (or the whole of the first half, for that matter). Not only that, when either da Costa or Kadlec did launch a surprise dart down the channel, widening the occasionally blob-like Bremen defence, players such as Rolfes and Bender wasted the unfolding space with the ball at their feet in the final-third by either looking to shoot or blazing it over respectively.

Assured and slick Leverkusen continued to do most of the attacking as we neared the 25-minute mark, and Bender twice drew good saves from Wiese in the space of a minute. From the latter, which came via a short corner-kick and a paucity of concentration from Bremen, the home side knocked the ball up to Ekici to surge forward on the break. He immediately found himself halted and being steered back towards his own goal, but showed good strength and awareness to knock a cross-field through-ball to Pizarro. The Peruvian danced in from the chalk, before shaving Leno’s left-hand post with a left-footed drive. Bremen, all of a sudden, were alive, and Ekici had a particularly effective five minutes: reaching the box with a driving and jinxing run on one occasion, and then winning a free-kick – which he took, right-footed, and blazed over – on the edge of the box after another confident and hard-to-defend dribble.

So, it was no surprise to see the former Bayern Munich man help Bremen take a 27th minute lead. After an attempt to push on, da Costa – who had looked positionally uncertain from the off – was caught out, but managed to get a crunching tackle in on an attempted through-pass into the space he had vacated. However, the ball went straight back to the hosts, and was fed to Ekici. He shimmied infield, drawing men across, before slipping the ball out to Trybull. At this point, Pizarro began a run; exploiting the fact that the too-deep da Costa was playing him onside to head over to the other side of the box. Trybull, who had acres of room and plenty of time, hit a slow dinked cross into the box first-time, allowing Pizarro time to trap before burying the ball home past a static Leno for 1-0!

Leverkusen finally got back on the ball again after falling behind, and tried their best to get the marginalised Kießling and Schürrle back into the game. However, the visitors looked to have lost confidence and zip to their attacks, making it easy for the hard-pressing Bremen to mop up and compress the space. Although Kießling still made one or two good off-the-ball runs into probing pockets of space, the midfield and full-backs just couldn’t get the ball through to him. After falling behind, Dutt had made his midfield a little flatter, with Castro now playing at centre-midfield, with Bender on the right. But, his side didn’t threaten Wiese at all during the rest of the half.

They very nearly fell 2-0 behind in the 37th minute as well when Friedrich and Kadlec were too (a). slow, and (b). far apart in coming out after a cleared corner. Bargfrede scooped the second-ball back into the D first-time, allowing Rosenborg to run onto it between the aforementioned spread-out Leverkusen defenders. Kadlec just about managed to get a foot in before the Swede pulled the trigger, however. A few minutes later, the Czech Republic international wasted the chance to put a free-kick into the box by underhitting the set-piece, before earning himself a yellow card for attempting to stop the subsequent Bremen counter-attack.

Leverkusen’s defensive woes continued, with Rosenborg’s canny run being found with an inch perfect through-pass in the 45th minute. The striker rounded the sprinting Leno, before seeing his effort blocked just in front of goal by Schwaab. Hartherz’s subsequent left-footed corner-kick went out before coming back in, ruining Bremen’s hopes of sending their visitors in 2-0 down at the break.

Second half starting formations

Werder Bremen (4-4-2 diamond, from right to left): Wiese; Fritz, Affolter, Papastathopoulos, Hartherz; Bargfrede; Ignjovski, Trybull, Ekici; Rosenborg, Pizarro

Bayer Leverkusen (4-3-1-2, from right to left): Leno; Castro, Schwaab, Friedrich, Kadlec; Bender, Reinartz, Rolfes; Schürrle; Kießling, Derdiyok

It was no surprise to see da Costa fail to return for the second half, with Derdiyok taking his place. This substitution saw Castro move to right-back, and Schürrle becoming a trequartista in a new 4-3-1-2 system. The visitors did the majority of the attacking in the opening ten minutes of the new half, although had little to show for it other than Rosenborg getting a yellow card for a rough tackle on the ever-busy Bender, and Kadlec stinging Wiese’s palms with a bullet-quick free-kick. The 4-3-1-2 was different to the 4-4-2 diamond which started the match, because Schürrle was playing and bobbing closer to the two strikers, and Rolfes and Bender were generally nearer the chalk than to Reinartz, who continued to sit in front of the defence. The move, although bold, did look risky, as Ekici, Rosenborg and Pizarro all stood poised ready to go forward on the counter-attack in a close-together triangle, looking to take advantage of the space left by the visitors in the centre.

Counter-attacks looked like the only form of attacking Bremen would do in the second half, as they sat back in their own half, content to let Leverkusen knock it around at the back without pressing. However, Dutt’s side were content to work off scraps, winning free-kicks and corners. And, they took advantage of winning one of the latter in the 58th minute to make it 1-1. Swung in left-footed from the right by Kadlec, Reinartz had a simple header into the goal from a centre-ish position off the edge of the six-yard box. His marker, Hartherz, seemingly failed to attack the ball because his ‘keeper had screamed that he was coming to collect it. But, Wiese was too slow in coming out, meeting Reinartz only after the sitting-midfielder had headed into an empty net for the equalizer!

Bremen looked a little shell-shocked after conceding, although four minutes after Reinartz’s goal, Wiese did come out and collect a corner, showing no lasting effects from his blunder. Despite a highly effective first 45 minutes, Ekici had barely touched the ball in 18 minutes of second half football, so was removed by Bremen coach Thomas Schaaf for Niclas Füllkrug. Intriguingly, the youngster went up front alongside Rosenborg, as Pizarro took up a similar role to the one being played by Schürrle. However, the system was still very much a 4-4-2 diamond, as Schaaf kept his players extremely closer together, even pushing Bargfrede – still at the base – further up the pitch. Nevertheless, it was all Leverkusen, and in the space of three minutes, Derdiyok – whose movement into the channels and centrally was proving hard to curtail – and Bender laid on fantastic chances for one another, both of which were squandered.

By contrast, the hosts’ strikers were forced into chasing scraps, as Bremen struggled to get their foot on the ball (and, even when they did, the green-shirted players had reverted back to being the sloppy bunch who started the match). Pizarro, meanwhile, despite playing deeper, spent a good twenty minutes following Reinartz’s goal watching the game pass him by.

As we entered the final quarter of an hour, both sides were starting to look tired. The pace of the game had slowed considerably, and the emphasis seemed to be on keeping things tight rather than wholeheartedly gambling on nabbing a goal. Looking to replacing two tired legs with a fresher set, Schaaf brought on Wesley for Trybull. But, after Fritz had tried to inject some of his own energy into the game by surging forward, Leverkusen very nearly grabbed a potential match-winner. Stopping the hosts’ right-back in his tracks, the visitors surged down the left. A diagonal ball was played towards the back-post, where the effervescent Derdiyok was sliding in. The Swiss striker just about couldn’t get anything on the pass, however, keeping the score at 1-1.

Against a struggling makeshift Bremen defence, Derdiyok’s movement was impeccable throughout the second half, and with nine minutes to play, his surprise sideways dart into the channel opened up the pitch for Schürrle to run at the defence. The former Mainz man slipped in Derdiyok’s run behind the defence, before getting the ball back, but neither could get a decent shot away at goal.

The atmosphere was white-hot in the final seven or eight minutes: caused by a combination of Bremen re-finding energy and belief, a number of fouls and offside decisions going the visitors’ way, and Hartherz very nearly scoring with a sumptuous volley. The several-minute spell of rest where both sides looked fatigued was well and truly over – all 20 outfield players were now presumably fully aware that only a couple of hundreds of seconds remained in the game, and that if they were to keep their faint Champions League hopes alive, a goal was needed. But, neither side could make the breakthrough, probably leaving both sets of fans and coaches disappointed. Bremen travel to Freiburg next weekend, while Leverkusen host Stuttgart.

The formations that finished the game

Werder Bremen (4-4-2 diamond, from right to left): Wiese; Fritz, Affolter, Papastathopoulos, Hartherz; Bargfrede; Ignjovski, Wesley; Pizarro; Rosenborg, Füllkrug

Bayer Leverkusen (4-3-1-2, from right to left): Leno; Castro, Schwaab, Friedrich, Kadlec; Bender, Reinartz, Rolfes; Schürrle; Kießling, Derdiyok

Some of the main narratives from both sides’ season to date have involved former Chelsea players. While Claudio Pizarro can’t stop scoring for Bremen, Michael Ballack has been one of the more disappointing of a plethora of disappointing performers for beleaguered coach Robin Dutt at Bayer Leverkusen. However, the club’s fans – eagerly awaiting the upcoming Champions League tie against Barcelona – seemingly sided with the 35-year-old midfielder as he was taken off during last weekend’s 3-2 victory over Mainz. Boos reverberated around the BayArena, and such noises were not entirely unexpected – since joining from Freiburg in the summer, Dutt is yet to convince both fans of the club and the players in his squad that he is the right man for the job.

His side come into this game one spot and one point behind fifth-placed Bremen. Leverkusen, however, boast the better goal difference (+1, compared to north German side’s -1 tally), although they lack a goalscorer, and have only netted 25 times – five less than Pizarro and Bremen. Given the form of the teams currently occupying the Champions League qualification spots, and the gap in points that separates Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, Schalke and Borussia Mönchengladbach from the likes of Bremen and Leverkusen, Bremen coach Thomas Schaaf and Dutt will have to get their teams playing out of their skins to claim one of the lucrative top-four positions.

Leverkusen might fancy themselves at the Weserstadion tomorrow, though, as they have not lost there since December 2007, boast the third-best record on the road in the 2011/12 Bundesliga, and beat Bremen 1-0 in the corresponding clash back in August. On top of that, Bremen could only draw 0-0 with relegation-battling Kaiserslautern last weekend, and in their final game before the winter break, were hammered 5-0 by Huub Stevens’ Schalke. Nevertheless, Schaaf’s side have won seven of the eight games they’ve played at home this season, and still have a number of the players who defeated Bayer Leverkusen in the 2009 DFB-Pokal final.

Bremen’s Clemens Fritz was part of the team that day, although the defender-cum-midfielder spent three years of his career with tomorrow’s opponents. Manuel Friedrich, Simon Rolfes and Karim Bellarabi, meanwhile, each spent several years at Werder as youngsters, while Leverkusen’s sporting director Rudi Völler will definitely have fond memories of his time at the Weserstadion, having made his name at the club with 97 goals in 147 games between 1982 and 1987. One of his teammates during that period, of course, was Schaaf, who was presented with his first January signing on Friday: Austrian attacker Zlatko Junuzović.

Völler, meanwhile, has recruited no new players for Dutt so far in January, although Leverkusen, like Bremen (Andreas Wolf to Monaco), have lost one player: Hanno Balitsch, a perceived troublemaker, has been allowed to join Nuremberg. However, a departure which will take place over the summer has also been announced this month - René Adler, who has spent several months out with an injury, losing his place in the Bayer side to Bernd Leno in the process, will move to Bremen’s arch-rivals Hamburg.

In the meantime, the now second-choice ‘keeper remains in the stands, and is likely to be joined there for this match by the injured attacking trio of Sidney Sam, Tranquillo Barnetta and Renato Augusto. The good news for the visitors, though, is that Bremen have a number of defensive players expected to miss out in Naldo, Sebastian Prödl (both injured) and Lukas Schmitz (suspended). With Schaaf, as ever, staying true to his 4-4-2 diamond, Leverkusen’s width-laden 4-2-3-1 – complete with swashbuckling full-backs – could see Bremen’s makeshift and exposed-down-the-channels rearguard given a stern test.

However, Dutt isn’t counting his chickens just yet: “Despite their many injury problems, Werder stick to their way of playing football,” he said during yesterday’s pre-match press conference, adding that ”Bremen expect to do well and they’ve been in the top half of the league for years.” Dutt, who celebrated his 47th birthday in the week, also praised his two holding midfielders from the Mainz game, Stefan Reinartz and Lars Bender: “They varied their game a lot and switched positions with each other very well,” he said.

Schaaf, the Mannheim-born ex-defender who is also likely to be without midfielder Tim Borowski and attacker Marko Arnautović because of injury for tomorrow’s tie, was just as respectful as his opposite number: “Leverkusen have a very good team which has very good individual players and can do a lot of things,” he said. “We are facing a very difficult but also very appealing task.”

Werder Bremen against Bayer Leverkusen kicks off at 2.30pm in the UK tomorrow afternoon. Refereed by Deniz Aytekin, the game can be watched live on Bet365.com.

Match preview here.

Starting formations

Nuremberg (4-2-3-1, from right to left): Raphael Schäfer; Jens Hegeler, Maroh, Philipp Wollscheid, Adam Hloušek; Almog Cohen, Timmy Simons;  Daniel Didavi, Christian Eigler, Esswein; Tomáš Pekhart

Hertha Berlin (4-2-3-1, from right to left): Thomas Kraft; Christian Lell, Roman Hubník, Christoph Janker, Levan Kobiashvili; Andreas Ottl, Peter Niemeyer; Patrick Ebert, Adrián Ramos, Ronny; Pierre-Michel Lasogga

Both sides were relatively cautious in the opening stages, with the game getting bogged down in midfield. That wasn’t the only part of the pitch where it was appropriate to use the word bogged, unfortunately - pigs would have turned up their noses at the goalmouths at either end, which played havoc with the players’ balance and the direction and pace of the ball throughout the match. Back to the opening stages, and the player looking most likely to make things was happen was Didavi, who was mucking in when his side were out of possession, and taking the game to Hertha when the ball was at his feet. In the fifth minute, he drew a panicky hack from Niemeyer, winning a free-kick. The ball was floated into the box, but only half-cleared. Near to the penalty spot, Wollscheid volleyed it back at goal, yet watched on in disbelief as the ball hit one post, before rolling across the line and hitting the other!

Despite not handing Hecking’s side the lead, the chance did give Nuremberg confidence and belief, and they saw most of the ball in the few minutes following it. Hertha sought to take the sting out of the game in the 11th minute, with the centre-backs – a partnership almost as makeshift as Nuremberg’s at the other end, with both sides suffering a number of absences in defence – keeping possession among themselves. When they finally pushed the ball forward in this particular instance, Ottl managed to win a free-kick off a clumsy Simons tackle. Ronny’s left-footed curl into the box was underhit, though, and Nuremberg broke. Didavi, however, seemed swamped, yet through sheer determination, energy and pace, he overcame a three-against-one situation to take the ball and home in on Kraft’s goal. Alas, the eventual left-shooted strike was tame, and easily palmed to safety by the former Bayern Munich goalkeeper.

As the half wore on, Hecking tried to get his full-backs – both of whom normally play in midfield – up the pitch a more. He did this by instructing Pekhart to drop into the midfield, and getting the wingers to veer inside, thereby generating space for the surprise overlap. However, the final ball provided by both Hegeler – who wasted space and the chance to utilise other options in the 25th minute by dragging a 20-yard vanity shot well wide – and Hloušek was too poor to threaten Hertha with initially. Still, at least the hosts were breaching the final-third – Skibbe’s negative pass-the-ball-at-the-back-and-invite-the-pressing tactics ensured that when his side had had possession, the vast bulk of it was in the first-third of the pitch.

When the visitors did attack, though, they occasionally showed the same willingness as Nuremberg for interchangability: Ronny and Ramos, in particular. But, the visiting side’s use of the ball wasn’t as cute or intricate as that of Nuremberg, who created a clever goal-scoring chance via a one-two move in the 21st minute which released Pekhart in the box. Unfortunately for the former Tottenham Hotspur striker, the experienced Hubník was alert to the danger, putting in a last-ditch slide-tackle as the trigger was about to be pulled. As the ball rolled out towards the corner flag and the clutches of Kobiashvili, Pekhart took out his frustration by sliding in on the Georgian, and earning himself a booking.

As we approached the half-hour mark, the visitors seemed to have settled upon what their best tactic for scoring a goal was – drawing panicky hacks in the second-third area of the pitch, and then floating a crossed free-kick into the box. With Hecking’s side giving far too many fouls of this kind away, a team better at delivering – Ebert and Ronny were the culprits - or finishing off set-pieces than Hertha could have grabbed themselves a couple of goals to take into the half-time break. They were nearly handed one on a plate on the 30-minute mark, too. Esswein, who had been a little quiet, passed a slow ball across the shadow of his own’s side D without even looking. Surprise, surprise, the ball was intercepted by a player in blue and white, and a through-ball was slipped in to Lasogga. The young striker dropped a shoulder, throwing Wollscheid off balance, before sending a shot not too far over Schäfer’s bar.

For a three or four-minute spell after this chance, Hertha were on top. They passed the ball with slickness, pace and invention, moved with more intelligence and embraced new ways of attempting to splice the maroon-shirted rearguard. With Kobiashivili providing good width down the left, Hertha opened up their hosts on at least two occasions during this spell. The first time saw Wollscheid just about get back to shield a clever through-ball intended for either Ramos or Lasogga, while the second time saw the latter fed down the right wing to win a corner. Ebert, unsurprisingly, underhit the set-piece, wasting yet another opening.

Didavi, who had floated out of the game a little, burst back onto centre-stage again in the 40th minute. The on-loan Stuttgart midfielder cut in from the right strip of chalk, leaving several away side players in his dust. The left-footed shot he smashed towards goal on the turn looked fierce enough and was on target, but Cohen, charging towards the box, didn’t have enough time to get off the way. The ball smashed off his back and out for a throw. One wondered if that might be that for the first half, but three minutes later, the home side won a free-kick on the right-hand side of the second-third. In keeping with every other set-piece taker on the pitch, Hloušek underhit the effort.

However, Hertha failed to clear their lines, resulting in Esswein picking the ball up on the left wing, just off the joint of the box. He skipped inside far too easily past the tame challenges of both Ebert and Ramos, before firing a shot across goal. Lell got his head onto the shot on its way, but only succeeded in helping the ball go even further from Kraft’s reach, and into the back of the net! Despite one scare a few minutes after that (caused by Schäfer electing to punch rather than catch a cross from the right), Nuremberg went in at the interval 1-0 ahead.

Second half starting formations

Nuremberg (4-4-2, from right to left): Schäfer; Hegeler, Maroh, Wollscheid, Hloušek; Didavi, Cohen, Simons, Esswein; Eigler, Pekhart

Hertha Berlin (4-2-3-1, from right to left): Kraft; Lell, Hubník, Janker, Kobiashvili; Ottl, Niemeyer; Ebert, Änis Ben-Hatira, Ramos; Lasogga

Desperately seeking creativity, Skibbe made one change for the second half, taking off Ronny – who had shown why he was ignored by ex-coach Markus Babbel during the first half of the season – for Berlin-born Änis Ben-Hatira in a like-for-like alteration. The home side began the half with a delightful passage of play; one which ended with them thinking they had added to their lead. It started when Esswein took possession on the chalk near to the halfway line. Scanning around the park for options, Esswein took full advantage of a lung-punishing sprint down the flank from Hloušek, allowing him to drift inside with the ball. The midfielder passed towards the D, allowing Pekhart and Eigler to play a little one-two; resulting in the latter being free to blast the ball home for 2-0… or so he thought. Correctly, the linesman ruled out the effort for offside.

Ten minutes into the new half, and things were far more open than they had been during the first 45 minutes. Nuremberg, now with Eigler playing alongside Pekhart, were having to share possession with their guests, who no longer wasted time indulging in melina at the back. It wouldn’t be true to say that Hecking had instructed his side to batten down the hatches at this stage, but a sense of caution was definitely pervading the mindset of the midfielders, now playing in a flat bank of four. Nevertheless, there was space to exploit on the break, and on the hour, Pekhart really should have made it 2-0. About seven yards out from goal and practically in a one-on-one situation, the Czech Republic international hit his shot at Kraft’s feet.

In the 65th minute, the mud did a sterling job in preserving Nuremberg’s lead. A good corner delivery from Ebert resulted in a header being cleared off the line, but the loose ball got stuck in the sludge. Niemeyer pounced on it, but, due to the heaviness of the ground, couldn’t adjust his feet quickly enough to get any power on his strike. As a result, Nuremberg’s defenders threw themselves in to make a block, and the danger was cleared.

Between the 70-minute and 75-minute mark, the game reverted back to being bogged down in midfield. Looking to get their opponents running, both sides were spraying the ball about from channel to channel, resulting in the team out of possession focusing on sitting off and keeping things tight. Eager to get himself involved, Lasogga raced back to the halfway line to take the to feet in the 72nd minute. But, Wollscheid followed him out, and showed strength, determination, intelligence and a cool head to first dispossess his man, who had been shielding him off, and then to carry the ball forward.

At this stage of the game, the visitors were pressing hard: a little too hard in some cases, the best examples both coming from Marco Djuricin in first the 77th and then the 80th minute. The young striker had only just been brought on as part of an interesting formational shift made by Skibbe. It saw Djuricin replace defensive-midfielder Niemeyer, with Hertha – kitchen sinks at the ready – now setting themselves up in a 4-1-3-2 system. With nine minutes to play, Hecking turned to his bench to freshen things up, replacing Pekhart with Swiss striker Albert Bunjaku in a like-for-like substitution. And then, a minute later, Skibbe made yet another ambitious change, replacing Lell with Tunay Torun.

But, it was someone who had been on the pitch since the very beginning who put the game to bed. Didavi won a free-kick in the final-third on the right-hand side after drawing a foul from Kobiashvili. Hloušek, whose delivery had been poor all match, finally swung in a decent left-footed cross, which managed to evade everyone – including Kraft, who dived too late and left himself exposed – bar Dominic Maroh at the back-post. The centre-back walked the ball in, before racing off behind the hoardings to celebrate putting his side 2-0 ahead with just six minutes left on the clock!

Thereafter, Nuremberg really did batten down the hatches, and looked to be making a good fist of it too; clearing a number of decent Hertha free-kicks and corner-kicks. But, after counter-attacking from one such effort, Nuremberg very nearly shot themselves in the foot. With Esswein sprawled on the floor, the home side’s players seemed to be expecting the ref to whistle, thereby ignoring Kobiashvili’s scoop over the top. However, the man in the middle had no desire to halt play, meaning that Hubník was totally isolated in the D with the ball at his feet and Schäfer – halfway between his line and the penalty spot – stranded. Alas, the last person any coach wants to see in that position is his rugged centre-back, and Hubník duly obliged to fit the criteria of that cruel stereotype by chipping the ball over the bar. It was the best chance Hertha had created all match, and it was no surprise that it was basically a lucky fluke.

Mike Frantz and Per Nilsson came on for Didavi and Cohen respectively as Hecking sought to wind the clock down in the dying seconds of the game, although the ref barely played injury-time, and the three points were all Nuremberg’s! They now sit in 12th place, with Hertha Berlin moving down to 13th.

The formations that finished the game

Nuremberg (5-3-2, from right to left): Schäfer; Hegeler, Maroh, Nilsson, Wollscheid, Hloušek; Frantz, Simons, Esswein; Eigler, Bunjaku

Hertha Berlin (4-1-3-2, from right to left): Kraft; Ebert, Hubník, Janker, Kobiashvili; Ottl; Torun, Ben-Hatira, Ramos; Lasogga, Djuricin

As it stands, there will be no new players making the four-and-a-half-hour drive to Nuremberg with the likes of Adrián Ramos, Pierre Michel-Lasogga and Änis Ben-Hatira for Hertha BSC. Nuremberg, though, have been far busier, with coach Dieter Hecking being given two new purchases, Hanno Balitsch (deemed a troublemaker and surplus to requirements by Robin Dutt at Leverkusen) and Adam Hloušek (who joined Slavia Prague, but was on loan at Kaiserslautern last season). A third player, Omar Gonzalez (LA Galaxy), was also signed by the club, but in his first training session, the 23-year-old American defender collided with international colleague Timothy Chandler. Unfortunately, he picked up an injury that has pretty much brought the loan spell to an end.

The only player in either squad to have represented both clubs is Hertha BSC midfielder Andreas Ottl, who played 17 times for Hecking and Nuremberg in 2010. Although both Skibbe and Hecking have been around the block, neither has had any association with Nuremberg and Hertha Berlin respectively. Nuremberg have won five of the last six games played between these sides, and the last time the capital city side won a game at the Frankenstadion was way back in March 2003. Huub Stevens’ Hertha beat their hosts, coached by a soon-to-be-fired Klaus Augenthaler, 3-0 that day. And, one of the goalscorers was no less than Michael Preetz – Berlin’s current sporting director, and the man who so publicly and bitterly fell out with Markus Babbel prior to/instigating the 39-year-old coach’s acrimonious departure in December.

Hopefully this encounter is nothing like the drab 90 minutes played out by the sides on the opening day of the 2011/12 season. Nuremberg won 1-0, scoring with one of the very few chances either side created. Of course, Hertha were coached by the more offensively-minded Babbel then, and with Skibbe known as something of a defence-first kinda guy, and Nuremberg having a goal-shy record at the Frankenstadion so far this season (including a defeat in the cup at home to local and historical rivals Fürth in the final game before the winter break; Hertha, on the other hand, beat Kaiserslautern to reach the last-eight stage), perhaps Bundesliga fans shouldn’t bank on this match being a classic.

Nevertheless, fans of the home team will have plenty to celebrate, with key midfielder Timmy Simons having signed a new deal at the club. The Belgian capped putting pen to paper by scoring two penalties last Friday as Nuremberg wrapped up their friendly schedule in Turkey with a 5-0 victory over Moldovan opponents FC Costuleni. Hertha also played their final preparation game in Turkey last week, beating Swiss side FC Thun 4-2 in front of 180 people. The Berlin side’s goals were scored by Roman Hubník, Ben-Hatira, Tunay Torun and Ronny.

After being overlooked by Babbel during the first half of the season, the latter player appears to have caught Skibbe’s eye, and could feature in Franconia. His brother Raffael, however, won’t be playing, as he picked up a red card against Hoffenheim before the Christmas break. The Brazilian is likely to be joined in the stands by injured trio Maik Franz, Nikita Rukavytsya and Andre Mijatović. Nuremberg, meanwhile, also look like missing a host of key players, with defenders Chandler, Javier Pinola, Per Nilsson, Juri Judt and Timm Klose all likely to miss out through either injury or suspension, along with midfielders Balitsch and Markus Feulner.

Speaking ahead of the game, Hecking put some positive spin on having an injury-hit squad (“The best news is that nobody else has picked up an injury”), praised the players at his disposal (“We have a good team”), and stated his short-term aim (“We want to get away from the danger zone as quickly as possible”). His side really need to start scoring more goals, or find a goal-scorer, as at present, penalty-taking defensive-midfielder Simons leads the way with three strikes. Skibbe, meanwhile, declared: “We want to get the next 20 points to ensure we stay up and play in the Bundesliga again next season.” His top-scorer is Pierre-Michel Lasogga, who netted six times in the first half of the Bundesliga seas0n.

Nuremberg versus Hertha Berlin kicks off at 2.30pm in the UK on Saturday afternoon, and can be watched, live, on Bet 365.com.

Match preview here.

Starting formations

Borussia Mönchengladbach (4-4-2, from right to left): ter Stegen; Tony Jantschke, Martin Stranzl, Dante, Filip Daems; Herrmann, Håvard Nordtveit, Roman Neustädter, Juan Arango; Reus, Mike Hanke

Mainz (4-3-1-2, from right to left): Christian Wetklo; Zdeněk Pospěch, Niko Bungert, Bo Svensson, Malik Fathi; Julian Baumgartlinger, Jan Kirchhoff, Eugen Polanski; Yunus Malli; Sami Allagui, Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting

The visitors started the game by playing some highly risky keep-ball on the edge of Wetklo’s box. With Gladbach standing and pressing high, Mainz eventually shifted the ball upfield via a long punt, the idea being for Choupo-Moting to dart to the left flank to reach it and head on for Allagui. When Gladbach got a turn on the ball in the early stages, they also faced high pressing from their opponents. However, they eventually managed to find a chink and get the ball on the floor in the second-third/final-third area of the pitch. The hosts retained possession with confidence, swagger and ease – aided hugely by Mainz’s long-running problem of chasing the possession-bearer as a pack of headless chicken when the ball comes near to their goal. Thus, some first-time moves resulted in space for Reus when he got a touch, and with any semblance of shape long since lost in the visitor’s backline, the 22-year-old played a sumptuous ball through the D. Herrmann, reading his colleague’s intentions, had already started his diagonal run towards the penalty spot, reaching his target and the ball with the daydreaming Fathi nowhere to be seen. The 20-year-old Gladbach man needed time to let the ball run across his body, but still poked it beyond Wetklo to hand Favre’s side a 1-0 lead after just four minutes!

Six minutes later, Bungert very nearly headed in an equalizer – an outswinging corner from the right caught the home side’s zonal marking system too deep, allowing the Mainz centre-back to glance a header towards the back post. However, Herrmann showed the value of having a guard there by hooking the header to safety. For a several-minute spell thereafter, Gladbach played some cynical keep-ball between the defence, midfield and ter Stegen. Favre’s had no intention of breaking forward during this period, and in response, Mainz barely pressed – it was as if we were witnessing a mutually agreed break. When the visitors did get on the ball in the 16th minute, a paucity of invention was plain to see, and the best they could muster was a tame Kirchhoff daisy-cutter which trudged wide – a shot which was only really allowed to happen in the first place because Gladbach’s defence stood off the gangly midfielder.

Nevertheless, driven on by Kirchhoff (who was rapidly becoming a force bringing the ball upfield or winning it back), and growing into the game as an attacking force because of the increased movement – especially into the channels, making Malli the foremost central attacker most of the time – by the two nominal strikers, Mainz were the only side looking to come forward as we hit the 20-minute mark; Gladbach were still content to play solely on the break (an attitude that persevered for the rest of the first 45 minutes too), and just conserve their energy when Mainz were sat off in their banks. Tuchel’s full-backs were also coming forward more often at this stage, and his centre-backs were doing their bit to help the attack too, dribbling the ball into the Gladbach half when a pocket of space materialised ahead of them. However, with Reus and Hanke tirelessly mucking in, and the defence and midfield banks constantly holding a perfect shape, Mainz continued to find breaking their hosts down rather difficult.

Between the 20-minute and half-hour mark, very little happened. Both sides were working tirelessly out of possession, and the game was becoming increasingly bogged down in midfield. Even Favre switching Arango and Herrmann to give himself some inverted wingers had failed to open the match up,  although Kirchhoff, who had been imperious for the first 30 minutes, so nearly equalized with 14 minutes left until the interval. Taking advantage of a mix-up on the edge of ter Stegen’s box, the Frankfurt-born 21-year-old whistled a right-footed missile just past the Gladbach ‘keeper’s post. Tuchel will have been pleased to see one of his young midfielders grabbing the game by the scruff of the neck in the way Kirchhoff was doing, although the side’s creative weapon, Malli, was flitting in and out of proceedings – the Germany U19 international showing some very nice touches and peeling into pockets of space and flicking a ball through to great effect every now and again, but these moments were too infrequent to ensure that ter Stegen had something resembling a workload. He wasn’t helped, though, by Mainz’s poor movement in the box; something compounded by the well-drilled and switched-on Gladbach defence, who barely gave Allagui and Choupo-Moting an inch in there.

Things had gone a bit flat as we neared the 40-minute mark, although credit to referee Peter Gagelmann, who let a lot of things go in order to keep the flow of the game, and showed himself willing to communicate with the players as often as he could to help keep a lid on things. Nevertheless, a nasty collision shortly before the break saw Svensson leave the pitch through injury. He was replaced by Marco Caligiuri, who went to the right-sided centre-midfield berth. Resultantly, Baumgartlinger went to the left-sided centre-midfield position, Polanski to the bottom of what was effectively a midfield diamond, and, inexplicably, Kirchhoff, the game’s best player in the first half, moved to centre-back. Yes, he can play there – but this wasn’t the time for him to play there, especially with Nikolče Noveski on the bench. The Macedonian might have been struggling for fitness coming into this game, but the winter break was just 50 minutes away at this point (DFB-Pokal tie in the week aside), and the Mainz centre-backs were hardly under much pressure.

Second half starting formations

Borussia Mönchengladbach (4-4-2, from right to left): ter Stegen; Jantschke, Stranzl, Dante, Daems; Herrmann, Nordtveit, Neustädter, Arango; Reus, Hanke

Mainz (4-3-1-2, from right to left): Wetklo; Pospěch, Bungert, Kirchhoff, Fathi; Caligiuri, Polanski, Baumgartlinger; Malli; Allagui, Choupo-Moting

Mainz were straight out of the blocks at the start of the new half, with Choupo-Moting putting a glorious chance on a plate for the ghosting Caligiuri. However, the midfielder’s first-time volley bounced over the bar. As if to epitomise just how much pressure the visitors were exerting at the end of the last half and start of the new one, Gladbach, the league’s cleanest side, picked up two yellow cards either side of the break – Nordtveit first, then Dante. However, it was someone associated with Mainz who lost their cool in the biggest fashion, Tuchel being sent to the stands just five minutes into the second half after protesting against a decision a little too vehemently.

With or without their coach on the sideline, Mainz were never going to stop gushing forward, and they really did have control of the game at this point, let alone a monopolisation on possession. But, the one thing they couldn’t control was putting the ball in the net, and, despite getting around and inside both Daems and Jantschke on a number of occasions, ter Stegen remained relatively untroubled as we reached the 55-minute mark. However, if the Gladbach ‘keeper was quiet, Wetklo might as well have been on another planet after picking the ball out of his net in the fourth minute. Arango – now back on the left – did manage to pull a neat ball back towards the penalty spot in the 56th minute, but, probably through sheer exhaustion after doing so much midfield work, neither Reus or Hanke was able to make a run into the box to get on the end of it and give the Mainz custodian something to do.

Bungert’s looping header in the 63rd minute from Malli’s right-footed free-kick forced ter Stegen into tipping the ball over for a corner, from which Herrmann broke down the right after his side cleared the danger. However, as the youngster’s sprint turned into a jog as he reached the final-third, eight Mainz players had already got back to stifle the hosts’ move. Those set-pieces that set the Gladbach counter in motion were Malli’s last contributions, as Nicolai Müller took his place. Yet, before the winger even had the chance to touch the ball, a Bungert mistake allowed Reus and Arango to home in on goal in a two-on-one situation. The former squared for the latter, who was foiled by Wetklo’s lightening-quick dart off his line. It was a rare mistake from the Mainz defence (the goal aside, of course), as keeping Gladbach’s attackers corked had proved less problematic for the team than making a decent final-ball.

In a bid to exploit an increasingly less formationally-disciplined visiting XI, Favre added more subtlety and energy to his forward line by bringing on Igor de Camargo in place of Hanke. Shortly afterwards, in the 72nd minute, Tuchel – who had sneaked into a seat behind the dugout to issue instructions to his deputies – made his final change, replacing Polanski with Anthony Ujah. The home side were starting to impose themselves on the game again by looking to force breaks rather than wait for them. To do this, they looked to make as many little one-two moves as they could, attempting to exploit the increasing number of gaps being left by Mainz, who were now in a 4-2-2-2 system. However, the away side’s centre-backs and full-backs continued to mark extremely tightly, cutting off most of Borussia Mönchengladbach’s runs or flick-on attempts in a flash.

Yet, as we reached the 80-minute mark, they were still spoiling all this impressive defensive work by failing to penetrate the Gladbach rearguard with a killer through-ball. Playing a midfielder behind the strikers hadn’t worked (Müller spent five minutes in the hole after coming on too), and adding more width to the side didn’t seem to have altered much either. If anything, going from four men in central-midfield-ish positions to two was the worst possible thing Tuchel could have done, as there was now at last space for Arango and Herrmann – who were standing inside quite often due to Favre keeping his two banks of four compact and narrow – to double up with Nordtveit and Neustädter and command the centre of the park numerically.

Reus, who had received treatment for an injury (partly sustained by the man himself after getting into trouble via poor control), was replaced by Raúl Bobadilla with six minutes left to play, Favre neglecting to put on a more defensive option. Nevertheless, his side held on quite comfortably in the final few minutes, although ter Stegen was anything but comfortable after Bungert elbowed him in the stomach. The young ‘keeper looked in excruciating pain; thrashing around on the floor for a while (which is unlike him), before staying on for the final few seconds. However, he waked off the pitch with a face that suggested he was in absolute agony; an image that soured a vital win for Gladbach and their European aspirations, albeit one they barely deserved. Both sides are in action in the DFB-Pokal in the week: Gladbach hosting Schalke, and Mainz going to Holstein Kiel.

The formations that finished the game

Borussia Mönchengladbach (4-4-2, from right to left): ter Stegen; Jantschke, Stranzl, Dante, Daems; Herrmann, Nordtveit, Neustädter, Arango; de Camargo, Bobadilla

Mainz (4-2-2-2, from right to left): Wetklo; Pospěch, Bungert, Kirchhoff, Fathi; Caligiuri, Baumgartlinger; Müller, Choupo-Moting; Allagui, Ujah

The first half formations.

Stuttgart’s poor form at Wolfsburg continued as young Sebastian Polter’s goal handed the hosts a priceless 1-0 victory to end the first half of the season on a high. The striker came on as a sub to tap in a 74th minute winner, put on a plate for him by Wolfsburg’s scruff-of-the-neck-grabbing, swashbuckling and technically sound left-back Marcel Schäfer. Bruno Labbadia’s side actually enjoyed the best of the first half, and looked much the better team. However, even then it was Felix Magath’s team who were having most of the chances, with Stuttgart’s inability to test Diego Bengalio proving just as big a problem in the second half. Wolfsburg move up to 12th courtesy of this result, while Stuttgart stay in seventh sot (for now).

Match preview here. 

Wolfsburg went long a couple of times in the opening stages, as Magath looked to get his defensive line standing as high up the field as possible. However, due to the poor, bobbly state of the Volkswagen Arena pitch, neither side found themselves able to complete even the simplest of passes or hold onto the ball early on, making for some end to end stuff. Francisco Rodríguez, aka Maza, very nearly allowed Wolfsburg to create the game’s first real chance in the fourth minute. The Mexican centre-back dallied near to the edge of his own box – the visitors were indulging in some teasing, risky melina – when faced by three Wolfsburg players pressing furiously. They nicked the ball off him, but unfortunately, Mario Mandžukić’s quick cross sailed straight into the arms of Sven Ulreich.

As we neared the ten-minute mark, Stuttgart were still playing a lot of keep-ball at the back, but after Maza’s mistake, were doing it with a lot more caution (especially as Wolfsburg, through Mandžukić and Koo Ja-Cheol, continued to press high and hard). However, in terms of their own attacking play, this negative tactic didn’t really seem to help the visitors. Because Wolfsburg were standing in two high and compact banks of four behind the aforementioned line-leading attackers, whenever Stuttgart engineered a surprise dart or pass into the other half or around the halfway mark, there was no room in which to work, and the players’ couldn’t adjust their pace – from slow and uninvolved to having to dart without any warning – accordingly.

However, when Stuttgart were able to break one of the hosts’ attacks down and keep the ball in open play, they were looking far more penetrating on the break. Wolfsburg’s high offside trap never looked level, and the players in it always appeared uncomfortable. Thus, in the opening quarter-hour, Labbadia’s side were able to get a few balls through or over the top, and drew a number of fouls. Nevertheless, as we reached the 15-minute mark, we’d yet to see a chance at either end. But, as if on cue, Timo Gebhart chipped a ball to Cacau, who’d made a sprint drop to receive the pass off Alexander Madlung. The striker scooped the ball over the top first-time, and with Marco Russ in a poor position and ball-watching, Martin Harnik could take the pass and run it towards goal. Once in the box and faced by Benaglio, he decided to square for Christian Gentner, who had the space in which to tap in. Alas, the pass was poor, and the opportunity wasted.

Two minutes later, though, at last we saw one of the ‘keepers given some work to do. Cacau’s free-kick was about 30 yards out from goal, but the German international still hit it with enough venom that he had Benaglio rushing towards his near post to push the bouncing ball wide. Buoyed by these openings, Stuttgart began to find gaps – aided by some better movement in the attack, and the fact that Wolfsburg already looked as though nerves and fatigue had crept in. One memorable passage of play saw Arthur Boka bring the ball upfield, before playing a sharp floor-based pass to Tamás Hajnal. The Hungarian took it as though he was gonna run the ball back towards his own defence, before showing a great change of pace on a semi-circular turn to carry the ball into a hole in centre-midfield. From there, he slipped a delightful through-ball between Russ and Schäfer for Harnik, who took the ball too far when rounding the onrushing Benaglio.

The hosts, however, could only dream of such invention and execution at this stage – as epitomised in the 22nd minute when they stormed forward on the break, only for Christian Träsch to try a speculative – and very obvious – long-range shot which got blocked. When the likes of Ashkan Dejagah got on the ball, they were either closed down in an instant, or forced into playing a weak pass due to the paucity of movement or gusto from those around them. At the other end, Harnik was the recipient of yet another delightful Hajnal through-ball in the 25th minute (vindicating Labbadia’s decision to play two strikers up front, because they occupied the centre-backs while the Austrian burst into the resulting gaps), but this time, Wolfsburg worked their high offside trap to perfection.

The best chance of the match up to this point, however, fell to the hosts’ right-sided midfielder. Fed to run the ball into the box, Dejagah did a Cruyff turn to find a pocket of space, before firing a quick left-shooted at Ulreich. The ball took a deflection, forcing the young custodian into adjusting his feet. Nevertheless, he kept the ball out of his net via an athletic save. But, if Magath was hoping that chance might spark his team into life, it didn’t. Stuttgart continued to look sharper, cleverer and more at ease with their coach’s tactics. Although Mandžukić was winning most of his flick-ons from long balls, Koo was never strong enough or in the right place to get the loose ball. Harnik, on the other hand, was always there to collect one of the two Stuttgart strikers’ knocked-on balls.

The visitors were still bossing possession as we went beyond the 35-minute mark, although they were yet to put Benaglio under sustained pressure or get a particularly special effort away at goal. Wolfsburg were doing a good job at clearing any set-pieces that landed in their box, while Stuttgart were doing just as good a job as stopping the man looking to launch a counter-attack from these cleared-balls in a flash. Someone you might have expected to thrive on such opportunities, Yohandry Orozco, had been a passenger for the entirety of the first 40 minutes. In a bid to get him into the game, Magath moved him over to the right-hand side to see out the first half. However, on the few occasions they did manage to trouble their guests, Wolfsburg still tried to go through Dejagah, who was now on the left. During the first half, Dejagah’s right-footed free-kick deliveries had created a number of headed chances for the very tall Madlung, but the centre-back either found Ulreich in the way or his idea of how high the bar was miscalculated.

Orozco finally did contribute in the 42nd minute, showing pinball-flipper feet to come in on off the flank, before squaring the ball to the oncoming Träsch. The former Stuttgart feigned a shot, before dinking a cute crossed-ball to the left of the D. Koo met it, nodding it towards the six-yard box where his Croatian strike partner had made a well-timed run. However, Serdar Tasci showed incredible positional sense and strength to get to the ball first, before coolly clearing the danger. Mandžukić and Orozco were in the thick of things two minutes later, too; the former holding the ball up well with his back to goal, before laying it on for the Venezuelan to hit the side-netting with a left-footed daisy-cutter.

Despite all that had gone before, the home side had Stuttgart on the ropes in the closing stages of the first 45 minutes, and Madlung really should have handed them the lead just as regulation time came to an end. Another Dejagah delivery from the left saw two of Madlung’s colleagues get shots off in the box, leaving Stuttgart’s defenders committed elsewhere or exposed, and Ulreich on the floor. Thus, when the ball dropped extremely kindly for an isolated Madlung on the edge of the six-yard box, all he had to do was tap it in. However, the centre-back took time to adjust his body, before an overly-intricate volley came off the wrong side of his foot and curled wide of the post. As Madlung stood with his head in his hands, and torso flopped over in a state of despair, Harnik could be seen in the background smirking. However, he and his colleagues will have gone in at the interval knowing that the way they finished the first half was no laughing matter, and that they were actually very lucky the match remained scoreless at this point.

Labbadia made a change for the second half, replacing Julian Schieber – who had looked less at ease at leading the line than Cacau – with Pavel Pogrebnyak. His opposite number, Magath, also made a change, bringing on Hasan Salihamidžić for Orozco (that five-minute good spell at the end of the first half clearly hadn’t erased the memory of the 40 minutes of nothingness which preceded it). The Bosnian went onto the right side of midfield, with Makoto Hasebe and Träsch also swapping positions.

The new half began in just as lively a manner as the first, with both sides eager to come forward, and pressing high and hard when deprived of possession. Soon enough, however, Stuttgart resorted to their pace-sapping keep-ball tactics, with William Kvist working with the defenders to keep Wolfsburg’s attackers wearing themselves down. Despite this, there was definitely a bit more bite to Wolfsburg both on and off the ball in the opening ten minutes of the new half, especially with Träsch offering the drive and well-timed overlap that his Japanese colleague had not been able to do in the first half (on the other flank, Schäfer never has and never will need an invitation to bomb forward).

The formations at the end of the game.

The hosts’ persistence and increasing belief meant that as we reached the 55-minute mark, they had their guests on the back-foot again.  Stuttgart now struggled to find the gaps in the midfield to get Hajnal on the ball, although Pogrebnyak was offering much better presence, strength and timing in his runs down the channel, and was proving to be a handful of an option to have. In fact, such was the ground the Russian was covering up top, Cacau even started to drop back to collect the ball off the defence for a time. The tide looked as though it had turned as reached the 65-minute mark, with Stuttgart regaining both the ball and their confidence on it, and the Wolfsburg crowd booing a misplaced pass.

But, just like the first half, it was the home side who were having the better chances. Although not as gilt-edged as the aforementioned one squandered by Madlung, Mandžukić had one of those headers that looks easier to score than miss in the 64th minute, courtesy of a Schäfer cross. Yet, despite the left-back’s ball in being perfect in every aspect, the Croatian’s header was too near to Ulreich, who nevertheless did superbly to get strength on his tip over the bar. The young custodian was at the heart of things a minute later when he collected the resultant corner. Looking to release his team on a quick counter, Salihamidžić blocked his path and nudged him to stop the move. The Bosnian, unsurprisingly, earned a booking for his effort.

With Salihamidžić looking a bit hot-headed thereafter, Magath played it safe by replacing him – after just over 20 minutes – with Polter. Hajnal, meanwhile, was replaced by Ibrahima Traoré, with Labbadia seemingly looking to stretch Wolfsburg (unlike the Hungarian, Traoré does his work on or nearer the chalk). Magath’s changed also doubled-up as a tactical manoeuvre, with Polter joining Mandžukić in a more natural 4-4-2 (Koo went onto the right of midfield).

And, in the 74th minute, the latter switch proved itself to be a masterstroke. Schäfer, who’d got inside or around Timo Gebhart – a midfielder playing at right-back due to injuries – time and time again in the second half, played a quick and clever one-two with Dejagah to reach the byline. The left-back’s subsequent square across goal was perfect in every sense, landing at the feet of Polter at the back post. The youngster, who’d barely been on the pitch five minutes, tapped in to hand his side a 1-0 lead!

Through Traoré’s left-footed set-pieces and the full-backs’ overlaps, Stuttgart closed the game out by pummelling Benaglio’s box with crosses. Georg Niedermeier eventually came on in place of Gebhart in a like-for-like change, while Josué took the place of Koo. Mandžukić should have made it 2-0 at the death after a two-on-one break involving he and Polter, but the Croatian striker was too casual in his approach play. Then, with the final touch of the match, Pogrebnyak headed straight at Benaglio from just three yards out… the Swiss ‘keeper held on. Thus, the game finished as Wolfsburg win, and to everyone associated with the club in the stadium, that was all that mattered.

It is coach Lucien Favre who must take most of the credit for Gladbach’s resurgence. Since he took over a side who looked destined for relegation at the midway point of the last campaign, the Swiss tactician has overseen a run where his side have only shipped 20 goals in 28 league games – and, according to the quite excellent Who Scored website, only reigning champions Dortmund have conceded fewer goals during this period. Similarly, Favre’s side are one of only two teams in the division who are yet to lose a home game this season, Hannover being the other.

However, they come into this game on the back of a highly disappointing 1-0 defeat to Augsburg last time out. Although Marco Reus’ ten goals and Juan Arango’s many assists have been key in Gladbach’s incredible run, when those two are either having an off day or are out injured, Gladbach struggle to create and take chances – as was the case in Augsburg, when the hosts’ ‘keeper Mohamed Amsif only really had three saves to make against a side who would have gone top had they won.

Despite Mainz having dropped 18 points from winning positions this term (again, credit to Who Scored for that fact), Thomas Tuchel’s side have lost fewer away games than any other team this term: “It is a sign of quality to be so stable away,” the Mainz coach said. Along with this belief in his defence, Tuchel knows that his side have an impressive record in recent matches played against tomorrow’s hosts - Mainz have won seven of their last nine league meetings with Gladbach, including the last three, the most recent of which was in April.

Further bigging up his side, who’ve drawn three games on the trot (the latest being a 1-1 draw with Cologne on Tuesday), the 38-year-old coach added: “It is very difficult to create opportunities to score against us from within the game. The way we defend is absolutely right.” Despite his scoring and match-winning exploits, Tuchel believes his side has what it takes to cork Reus: “We will have to prevent and stop the situation that make him comfortable,” the Mainz coach said. “Every club has such players, no matter if they are called [Lukas] Podolski, [Mario] Götze, [Arjen] Robben or Reus. We always defend against them together.” Reus has been battling to be fit for the tie, but whether or not he features doesn’t bother Tuchel: “I am counting on him playing,” he said. “But, if not, then we will have to prepare for [Raul] Bobadilla, [Igor] de Camargo and co.”

As for that defence, club captain Nikolče Noveski should be fit enough to take his place at the heart of it. Since the beginning of the week, the Macedonian has been back in training after a six-week break. However, Marcel Risse, Florian Heller, Ádám Szalai and Andreas Ivanschitz and Deniz Yilmaz are all out through injury. Bo Svensson and Eugen Polanski, though, should be in the starting XI – most likely a 4-3-1-2 – to face their former employers. As for Gladbach, who tend to play in a 4-4-2, former Mainz midfielder Roman Neustädter should also be selected to face his former club tomorrow afternoon. His coach, Favre, is blessed on the fitness front (minor Reus worries aside), with only Manchester United loanee Joshua King definitely set to miss out.

Unlike Reus at Gladbach, no one has stood head and shoulders above everyone else in the scoring stakes for Mainz this season, with Ivanschitz’s five strikes enough to keep him at the top of the scoring charts. Tuchel’s three main strikers, Anthony Ujah, Sami Allagui and Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting, have taken it in turns to lead the line either individually or as part of a duo so far this season (the 38-year-old coach changes his tactics just as often as he tinkers with his playing personnel), and this constant uncertainty and mutability is reflected in the fact that they only have two, three and four goals respectively. Lest we forget, Mainz’s erratic form can also be put down to the loss of three key goal-getting/creating players over the summer - André Schürrle (Bayer Leverkusen), Lewis Holtby and Christian Fuchs (both Schalke).

Nevertheless, Favre is fully aware of how difficult tomorrow’s game will be. Being told at the press conference of Mainz’s impressive form on the road, the 54-year-old commented: “That says a lot about the quality they have. They’re extremely well organised and able to switch between four different systems, often during games. We need to be prepared for anything.”

Borussia Mönchengladbach against Mainz kicks off at 4.30pm in the UK tomorrow afternoon. The referee will be Peter Gagelmann – the man who officiated Mainz’s 3-3 draw with Nuremberg a couple of months ago.

Neither of these sides have the distraction of European football this season, and they also share the record of just one win from their last five games. However, Stuttgart are sitting a bit prettier than their hosts right now, as they’re currently in seventh spot, which is as high up as they can end 2011 in (the lowest Bruno Labbadia’s side can finish is 11th). On the other hand, the highest Wolfsburg could end the year in is 11th place, while if they suffer defeat on Saturday, they might very well find themselves spending Christmas in the relegation zone. Whatever happens, don’t expect a 0-0 draw – the last time Stuttgart were involved in one of those was 25 months ago.

So far, it really has not worked for Magath in his second spell at Wolfsburg, although I do partially agree with his comments in the wake of last weekend’s defeat to Werder Bremen. The veteran coach noted that his side is actually playing quite well when the scoreline is 0-0, but that as soon as they fall behind, the players’ confidence goes and they fall to pieces. That is true to an extent: however, the reason Wolfsburg tend to fall behind is because they play a risky high line at the back – one that’s not only risky in itself, but also because it’s not always enacted with the necessary discipline. Perhaps that’s not surprising, though, given that Magath has used in excess of 30 players this season, including many youngsters.

Ashkan Dejagah has shown occasional flashes of his usefulness in attack, but by and large, the team is reliant on Mario Mandžukić for goals and inspiration. Labbadia, on the other hand, has seen this season that if Martin Harnik is having a bad day, Cacau or Christian Gentner are more than capable of scoring the goals his side needs to keep in touch with the European-place chasing pack. Although Shinji Okazaki and Tamás Hajnal are yet to rediscover the form that made them guaranteed and relied-upon first-teamers last season, other new signings such as William Kvist have brought extra quality to Labbadia’s midfield.

However, the former Bayer Leverkusen coach has serious problems at the back this weekend, with Matthieu Delpierre, Johan Audel, Khalid Boulahrouz, Stefano Celozzi and Cristian Molinaro all ruled out. Antonio Rüdiger, therefore, could be in line for his first-team début at full-back. I saw him play for the Germany U19 side as a left-sided centre-back back in June, and was impressed at how comfortable and classy he was when bringing the ball out from the back. The only other option at full-back – with Arthur Boka assured of at least one spot on the flanks – is Timo Gebhart, who usually plays in midfield.

Labbadia is keeping his cards close to his chest on that decision, and the same applies to his tactics too. Speaking ahead of the tie, the 45-year-old said: “We’ll have to look at how we can best approach this one. Of course, we want to be successful in our final Bundesliga game of the year and take all three points in spite of Wolfsburg’s strength at home. To achieve that goal, we are going to have to do a bit more in all areas of the pitch, and be more effective.”

Magath, renowned as a cold-hearted coach, highlighted the fact that he’s struggling by taking his players bowling this week to boost team spirit. Speaking ahead of the game, the 58-year-old said: “The players are looking forward to this game and are all really pushing one another because they know that in the final game of the year, they can make the situation more acceptable and then enjoy the winter break. They are all highly concentrated in their work. I don’t think any of the lads are allowing their thoughts to wander, they want to perform well one last time this year.”

He added:  ”The current season has been affected by the fact that I am always connected with the championship win in 2009. When I returned, there was a great deal of euphoria because of that and the belief that everything would fall into place again. We have seen now once again that nothing just works itself out and that we have to work for our success. Work is what I’m all about. That’s what I am capable of, it’s what I always say and it’s what I promise to deliver. I am still convinced that the work we put in will eventually lead to success.”

Some players who won’t be required to put in some of that work tomorrow, however, are Tolga Ciğerci, Patrick Helmes and Thomas Kahlenberg – all of whom are still out in the cold. As well as possibly Chris, and definitely Sebastian Schindzielorz and Hitzlsperger, Hleb is also out injured (and has now been told he can go back to Barcelona next month), so he too will miss the chance to get one over on some of his former teammates. The playmaking onus, therefore, will be on either Venezuelan youngster Yohandry Orozco, or South Korean international Koo Ja-Cheol.

Not that Wolfsburg are necessarily looking to grab their win via a moment of inspiration. Alexander Madlung noted in the build-up to this tie: “There is no reason for us not to beat VfB on Saturday – I’ve nothing against chalking up a scruffy win, either.” The defender-cum-midfielder added: “We will be doing all in our power to ensure that we leave a positive impression. Things are not just going to turn around by themselves, though – there is a lot to be done. It will be important to win the challenges and make use of the chances, which we always seem to have. On Saturday, it will be all about preventing a further slip in the table. That’s something we must avoid at all costs.”

Wolfsburg against Stuttgart kicks off at 2.30pm in the UK, and can be watched, live, on Bet365.com. The referee will be Wolfgang Stark – the official who took charge of Stuttgart’s opening day 3-0 win over Schalke.

The first-half formations.

Faton Toski grabbed two goals and three assists as Bochum gave Aue a harsh lesson in the virtues of taking your chances. Despite the hosts bossing the ball in the opening 45 minutes of this Sunday afternoon 2. Bundesliga clash between two mid-table sides, Aue actually had more chances, but were profligate and up against Bochum’s impressive goalkeeper, Andreas Luthe. But, at the other end, Toski and Christoph Kramer helped tear Aue open, with Marcel Maltritz, Mirkan Aydın and Toski himself scoring the goals that gave coach Andreas Bergmann’s side a 3-0 lead at the break. The hosts added two more goals to their tally shortly after the restart, with Toski unplayable and Aue seemingly having thrown in the towel, before Aydın grabbed his second and Bochum’s sixth to cap a memorable day.

Match preview here.

The away side made much the better start, hitting their narrow hosts down the flanks and just generally showing more hunger and power early on. Nevertheless, Luthe was relatively untroubled in the Bochum goal during the first five minutes, and Maltritz stuck to burly dangerman Ronny König like glue. And, it was the home side who had the first real chance of the match through Jong Tae-Se. The North Korean star sliced his right-footed effort wide under little pressure, mind – getting the opportunity in the first place after Aue made a meal of clearing a free-kick, and then being played onside by the ball-watching, trudging-out Adli Lachheb. A minute later, a square was played across the edge of the box to Takashi Inui, who cleverly let the ball run across his body, before having his shoulder-dropping, dummy-throwing jinx halted just before he pulled the trigger.

Bergmann had set his side up in an interesting 4-1-3-2 shape – something Aue coach Rico Schmitt looked to counter when his side were out of possession by standing his 4-2-3-1 quite high, with wide corridors in between the banks conspicuous only by their absence. The Bochum shape was less attack-minded in practice than it reads on screen, because Inui was playing between the lines and dropping back to get the ball, while Christoph Dabrowski often veered inside alongside Kramer (Toski, who normally plays as a winger, had no hestiation in coming upfield to provide the left-sided width). But, the game was extremely bitty in the opening 15 minutes, with Aue looking to bludgeon their way through when they had the ball, and pressing and sucking the life out of Bochum’s game when they didn’t.

The hosts’ playmaker, Inui, was on the fringes of the game early on, but he did show one or two signs of what he could do – cutting in off the left flank and firing off a right-footed shot in the 14th minute, for instance. Although that particular effort got blocked, it allowed Bochum to remain in the final-third of the pitch with the ball, and Inui eventually won a free-kick on the same left-hand channel after René Klingbeil scythed the Japanese starlet down. Toski’s left-footed set-piece was absolutely perfect, and Maltritz – again in a tangle with König – bundled the ball in at the back-post for 1-0!

After taking the lead, Bochum looked a lot more dynamic both in and out of possession. Despite Aue getting two – wasted – half-chances, the home side looked in control of proceedings, even if they still lacked quality and demonstrated poor decision-making in the final-third as we approached the quarter-way stage of the match. Bergmann now seemed to have abandoned having a left-sided midfielder altogether, with Dabrowski having moved into a permanent infield position (although he and Kramer were covering so much ground), and the two strikers now taking it in turns to peel into the left channel to receive a pass. Bochum were comfortable doing this at this stage because they had a near-monopolization of possession. König was looking isolated up top for the visitors, who were struggling to make their quick-fire, direct, hit-them-on-the-break game-plan function.

The hosts were doing the majority of their attacking down the right, where Giovanni Federico was causing Kevin Schlitte numerous problems. One attack in the 28th minute saw some pass-and-move football played down this channel and then just off the D, before a reserve through-ball was played to Toski, whose disguised dart had allowed him to reach the left-hand side of the box all alone. However, his fancy and awkward-looking left-foot little-toe curl towards the bottom right-hand corner was easy for Männel.

Despite the goalkeeper setting his team on the break, and Guido Kocer setting up a great headed chance for Jan Hochscheidt, Luthe was equal to it. And, maintaining a real several-minute passage of end-to-end football, Bochum went at their guests again, with Inui exposing Aue’s high offside trap – spoilt because Thomas Paulus didn’t step up quick enough – by slipping in the impressive Kramer, who had pierced through one of the visitors’ banks for the umpteenth time with one of his characteristic leggy, driving runs. The young midfielder reached Männel’s box, before squaring for Aydın to make it 2-0!

Luthe was again called into action several times after his outfield colleagues had given the side a two-goal cushion (the visitors occasionally getting some luck by raiding the empty channels, or by playing off König whenever he had the rare luxury of support or had avoided the close attentions of both Maltritz and Jonas Acquistapace), and each time, the Velbert-born 24-year-old dealt with whatever was thrown at him in a cool, unflappable and impenetrable manner. For all their defensive lapses and time spent out of possession, Aue actually created more chances than Bochum in the opening 40 minutes, and had they been more clinical and not up against an in-form Luthe, it could have been they rather than the home side going into the half-time break with the lead.

But, after first seeing a free-kick just off the D blocked in the 40th minute, a minute later, Toski fared a lot better with another set-piece positioned just off the right-hand side of the box. His left-footed, bouncing curler left Männel motionless as it crept inside the goalkeeper’s left-hand post, handing Bochum a 3-0 lead. As much as the scoreline indicated that the game looked finished already, the Bochum fans won’t have been comfortable at half time given the amount of chances Aue had created on such little possession, and also because of the fact that their side shipped four goals at Eintracht Braunschweig only last weekend.

Schmitt made one change at the break, replacing Lachheb with Fabian Müller. Aue’s ability to get in behind Bochum hadn’t been altered, though, as epitomised in the first minute of the second half when Kocer showed Björn Kopplin a clean pair of heels, before planting a cross on König’s head (the effort, alas, sailed over the bar). A minute or two later, an irritated Marc Hensel personified Aue’s frustration at how things were going by getting into a confrontation with Dabrowski before a corner-kick was delivered. The referee had words, before whistling for the home side to put the ball back into play. It was hit towards the D, where Dabrowski was allowed to get away with a feeble trap. Nobody in yellow closed the loose ball down, however, allowing Toski to fire a first-time, right-footed (!), half-volley thunderbolt into the bottom left-hand corner for 4-0!

Again, Aue rallied – their best chance in the immediate aftermath of Toski’s second goal coming when the man himself fouled Müller, allowing Tobias Kempe to sting Luthe’s fingertips with a sharp right-footed free-kick which the ‘keeper did well to hold on to. Out of possession, Aue’s shape was still good whenever Bochum knocked the ball about aimlessly, but as soon as some urgency was injected into the hosts’ passing or the play switched, the visitors either took too long or no longer had the desire to respond. As had been the case in the first-half, it wasn’t as if Bochum had been doing anything exceptional with the ball – they were just allowed to keep hold of it too easily, and seized on openings whenever or wherever they presented themselves.

So, it was no surprise when Bochum grabbed their fifth goal one minute shy of the hour mark. Müller and Hochscheidt did little to close down a relatively slow one-two move on the flank, allowing Toski to easily skip into the box and pick where and when he wanted to pass the ball. He plumped for a pull-back, laying a tap-in on a plate for Federico – who had jogged through the D with the Aue centre-midfielders ball-watching – to make it 5-0!

After Hochscheidt showed straight after the fifth goal that Toski wasn’t as good defensively as he was in attack by beating him to the byline and winning a corner thanks to his inviting cross, Schmitt decided to make another personnel change, with Kocer going off in place of Mike Könnecke. A few minutes later, Kevin Vogt took the place of Federico for Bochum. The hosts barely pressed as we neared the 70-minute mark, sitting off in a 4-4-2-cum-4-3-2-1 (Inui dropping back or alongside Aydın accordingly, with Dabrowski switching between left-sided midfielder and left-sided centre-midfielder).

The formations during the closing stages.

The game, unsurprisingly, was rather flat at this stage, with Aue veering between not even bothering or being a bit too direct, hasty and clumsy in trying to bag a consolation goal. Oliver Schröder, to his credit, was trying to take control – although noting that it was too late to be pulling the strings, being hungry to get on the ball and releasing the full-backs with some clever through-passes when his side were 5-0 down with about ten minutes to go is probably me just stating the obvious.

More substitutions followed, with Kramer making way for Andreas Johansson,  Hólmar Örn Eyjólfsson coming on for Maltritz and Christian Cappek replacing the too-easily marshalled König. Before the latter two changes, Hensel looked odds-on to reduce the deficit, but again, Luthe made a fine – this time point-blank – save to preserve his clean sheet. Poor Männel’s sheet, however, was anything but clean. In the 83rd minute, Toski came dribbling out from the back again, and with Aue’s defensive line horrendously misshapen, the left-back had the pick of two players to push a through-ball to. Ignoring Inui, who perhaps went too early, Toski slipped in Aydın, who coolly buried the ball for 6-0!

A surreal two minutes followed after Bochum’s sixth, with the two Aue centre-backs passing solely among themselves and the ‘keeper, as Bochum stood off. It was as if the game had been stopped due to an injury, and the three players were slowly rolling the ball to one another because they were bored. In reality, of course, Schmitt and his players were fearful of leaking a seventh goal, or maybe even an eighth. But, they didn’t, aided by the fact that all 22 players had stopped trying and the referee’s decision not to play any injury time. Those few Bochum fans that had turned up to this match roared their approval at the final whistle, singing Toski’s name for some time after the game was over.

But, despite little change to the playing staff over the summer, Bochum took several months to get it together at the start of the current season; the squad seemingly not ready to start the 2011/12 campaign back in July, and a bit of lethargy seemingly having set in. Despite five wins and a draw from their last ten games, Bochum’s poor start to the new season – which cost Friedhelm Funkel his job – combined with the fact that they’ve lost their last two games means that it’s highly unlikely that tomorrow’s hosts will be back in the Bundesliga next season. However, under new coach Andreas Bergmann, at least a relegation scrap now looks likely to be avoided.

Aue, meanwhile, arrive at the rewirpowerSTADION (sic) – which tends to attract only about 10,000 fans for the less attractive games ,à la this one – on a run of two wins from their last eight matches. One of those, admittedly, was a 2-1 home defeat in the cup to Nuremberg, whom they gave a very good game. Ultimately, Rico Schmitt’s side, normally set out in a 4-3-2-1, struggle for goals, especially away from home, and Aue have never won a game in Bochum (late goals from Jong Tae-Se and Giovanni Federico decided the league match in Bochum last season). That said, this is pretty much the same side that, save for a fixture backlog, would have been crowned 2010 2. Bundesliga winter champions (and, they finished the 2010/11 campaign in a very respectful fifth spot, too). Plus, Schmitt and his squad will be comforted by the fact that Bochum’s home concession rate is one of the worst in the league, and last weekend, Bergmann’s side were hammered 4-0 by Eintracht Braunschweig.

The players in Aue’s side to watch out for are goalkeeper Martin Männel, midfielder Jan Hochscheidt and former Bochum man Oliver Schröder, all three of whom will be buoyed having recently signed new deals at the club. Up front, Ronny König is capable of causing even the most experienced of defenders problems, while on the wing, Guido Kocer can be a handful. Those five and their colleagues will be cheered on by about 300 supporters who are making the trip from East Germany to watch Schmitt and his nigh-on fully-fit squad in action.

Bergmann, meanwhile, has fitness worries over two of his own stars, veteran Paul Freier, and youngster Kevin Vogt. Mimoun Azaouagh and Matias Concha, are definitely out. The former St Pauli coach called last weekend’s hammering at the hands of Braunschweig a “blow”, and said of tomorrow’s opponents: “Aue have a very compact and combative team, which is physically very strong. Up front they have König, who, with his head, is one of the strongest players in the league, with his colleagues lying in wait for the second-balls.”

Bochum versus Aue kicks off at 12.30pm tomorrow in the UK, and can be watched, live, on Bet365.com. The referee will be Thorsten Schriever.