20:30 Dortmund - Koeln
Saturday
15:30 Frankfurt - Kaiserslautern
15:30 Hannover - Bayern Munich
15:30 Nuernberg - St Pauli
15:30 Moenchengladbach - Hoffenheim
15:30 Stuttgart - Schalke
18:30 Bayer Leverkusen - Wolfsburg
Sunday
15:30 Freiburg - Werder Bremen
17:30 Hamburg - Mainz
- Borussia Dortmund have won seven of their last eight matches against Koeln.
- On both of the last two occasions that Dortmund defeated Koeln, the winning goal was scored in the 90th minute.
- Köln have won 14 points in 2011 - only one less than Dortmund (15).
Dortmund
Roman Weidenfeller and Jakub Blaszczykowski are expected to return, but Patrick Owomoyela, Mohamed Zidan, Shinji Kagawa and Florian Kringe will be sidelined.
Koeln
Pedro Geromel, Adam Matuschyk, Kevin McKenna, Christopher Schorch, Adil Chihi, and Slawomir Peszko have all been ruled out due to various injuries.
Prediction
Editor's Prediction
Borussia1FC Köln 
0
0.
Frankfurt - Kaiserslautern
- Kaiserslautern have lost their last three away games, conceding 11 goals in the process.
- Frankfurt have only won one of their last four home games against Kaiserslautern (one draw, two defeats), a 3-1 in 2000-01.
- Frankfurt haven't scored in any of their seven games this year, only Köln have ever suffered the same feat in BL history (2001-02).
Frankfurt
Oka Nikolov, Caio, Chris, Zlatan Bajramovic, and Ricardo Clark are all unfit; Pirmin Schwegler is a question mark, with Benjamin Koehler a possible stand-in.
Kaiserslautern
Star midfielder Ivo Ilicevic is injured, and will join Jan Simunek and Jiri Bilek in the stands.
Hannover - Bayern Munich
- Bayern Munich have won the last four clashes with Hannover, scoring 18 goals and conceding just one.
- Nobody in Hannover's current squad has ever scored a Bundesliga goal against Bayern.
- Hannover have only conceded 31 goals - only once in their Bundesliga history have they conceded fewer after 23 matches (28 in 2004-05; they also conceded 31 in 1968-69 and 2005-06).
- The last 18 goals in this fixture have been scored by FC Bayern. Before the first-round match against Hannover, Bayern were the only club in the league whose attackers had not scored a single goal.
Hannover
Talismanic striker Didier Ya Konan has been ruled out with a knee injury; Christopher Avevor and Leon Andreasen will also miss out due to injuries.
Bayern Munich
Bastian Schweinsteiger is suspended, and will miss the match along with long-term casualty Ivica Olic. Breno is expected to start in central defence, but Holger Badstuber has an outside chance of returnin.
Schweinsteiger will miss out through suspension
Prediction
Based on quality alone this should be a stroll in the park for Louis Van Gaal's men who have been short on confidence, following consecutive losses to Borussia Dortmund in the Bundesliga and to Schalke in the DFB-Pokal semi-final. Hannover showed grit and determination in their win over St Pauli last weekend, but with Didier Ya Konan injured and with so much at stake for Bayern Munich, Mirko Slomka's men are likely to come out of this game with empty hands.
Editor's Prediction
Hannover 960Bayern Munich 
2
2.
Nuernberg - St Pauli
- Nuernberg are ranked second in the 2011 standings with 14 points from seven games, Dortmund have 15.
- St. Pauli have only won one of their last seven away games (one draw, five defeats).
- Gerald Asamoah has been involved in eight of St. Pauli's last 12 goals (four goals, four assists).
Nuernberg
Juri Judt, Julian Schieber, Albert Bunjaku and Markus Mendler are all on the casualty list and will be unavailable for selection.
St Pauli
Bastian Oczipka, Florian Lechner, Fabio Morena, Carsten Rothenbach, and Gerald Asamoah are all sidelined for lack of fitness
Moenchengladbach - Hoffenheim
- Moenchengladbach have scored in 13 of their last 14 games.
- Hoffenheim have conceded in 10 of their last 11 games.
- Moenchengladbach have won none of their eight competitive games against Hoffenheim (three draws, five defeats).
Moenchengladbach
Marc-Andre ter Stegen, Jean-Sebastian Jaures, and Logan Bailly have been ruled out; Patrick Herrmann is tipped to start on the right flank, but Igor de Camargo is a potential starter ahead of the youngster.
Hoffenheim
There are a number of question marks over the selection of Marco Pezzaiouli, but the Hoffenheim coach will definitely have to do without injured trio Tobias Weis, Manuel Gulde, and Chinedu Obasi.
Stuttgart - Schalke
- Schalke have only won four out of 40 away games at VfB Stuttgart (26 defeats, 10 draws).
- VfB have won three games in the second half of the campaign, the same number as in the whole first half.
- VfB have scored 12 of their last 14 goals in the second half.
Raul struck in Schalke's midweek win over Bayern
TEAM NEWS:
Stuttgart
Bruno Labbadia wil be without a number of key players on Saturday, including Matthieu Delpierre, Ciprian Marica (both suspended), Philipp Degen, Johan Audel, Cacau, Arthur Boka, Patrick Funk, and Marc Ziegler (all injured).
Schalke
Klaas-Jan Huntelaar is still injured after missing Wednesday's DFB Pokal match with Bayern Munich, and will join Christian Pander, Tim Hoogland Christoph Moritz, and Levan Kenia in the stands
Prediction
Editor's Prediction
VfB Stuttgart2Schalke 04 
1
1.
Bayer Leverkusen - Wolfsburg
- Bayer are unbeaten at home against Wolfsburg in the Bundesliga (10 wins, three draws). Leverkusen came back from 2-0 down with only 19 minutes left to play to win 3-2 in this season's first meeting between the two sides.
- Wolfsburg have only won one of their last nine BL away games (four draws, four defeats); they beat Mainz 1-0 on the 19th matchday.
- Wolfsburg have failed to convert any of the four penalties they have been awarded so far this season.
- Pierre Littbarski was Bayer's assistant manager from January to May 2001. The former German international only lost three of his 24 four clashes with Bayer in his playing days (eight wins, 13 draws), when he wore the shirt of their local rivals Koeln.
Bayer Leverkusen
Arturo Vidal is suspended, meaning that Michael Ballack could start. In addition to Vidal, Jupp Heynckes will have to manage without injured duo Tranquillo Barnetta and Hanno Balitsch.
Wolfsburg
Grafite, Josue, Alexander Madlung, Thomas Kahlenberg, and Tolga Cigerci are unfit, but Pierre Littbarski will have the majority of his first team available to play
Prediction
With Wolfsburg failing to ever beat Leverkusen away, it looks unlikely that the 2008-09 Bundesliga champions will break their duck this weekend with die Werkself flying high. Expect a close game with Wolfsburg looking like an improved team last week but Bayer to prevail.
Editor's Prediction
Leverkusen2VfL Wolfsburg 
1
1.
Freiburg - Werder Bremen
- Freiburg have picked up just one point from the past eight BL encounters with Werder (1-1 at Bremen in April 2004).
- Only Koeln (six) have tallied fewer points on the road than Werder (seven). It was only last season that Bremen ranked as the BL's best away team!
- Werder's faithful haven't witnessed a full haul in any of the last seven games on the road - the longest drought in the league. The team's goal difference in these seven matches: 1-20!
Freiburg
Mensur Mujdza is suspended, Julian Schuster and Daniel Williams are injured, and long-term casualties Simon Pouplin, and Tommy Bechmann remain sidelined.
Werder Bremen
Torsten Frings returns from suspension, but Clemens Fritz will be missing after picking up his fifth caution of the campaign. Samuel, Christian Vander, Naldo, Sebastian Boenisch, Daniel Jensen and Onur Ayik will miss out on Sunday's clash as well due to injuries. All eyes wil be on 18-year old playmaker Florian Trinks, who is expected to start in the #10 role
Hamburg - Mainz
- The earlier meeting between these two ended 1-0 to HSV (Guerrero) and put an end to Mainz's seven game winning streak at the start of the season. Only two other teams have ever managed to win their first seven games (Bayern, 1995, and Kaiserslautern, 2001).
- In Ze Roberto (nine) and Christian Fuchs (eight), two of the league's top assist providers will be facing each other. Christian Tiffert from Kaiserslautern has the most (10).
- Hamburg have only conceded four goals in 2011's seven games - joint-best in the league.
Hamburg
Armin Veh will have a nearly full squad available; the only absentees are long-term casualties Dennis Diekmeier and Romeo Castelen. There will be competition for starting berths on the flanks, but Jonathan Pitroipa and Marcell Jansen are tipped as favourites to be selected.
Mainz
Adam Szalai and Sami Allagui are both out due to injuries, meaning that Thomas Tuchel will be rather short in attack. Miroslav Karhan and Eugen Gopko have also been ruled out due to fitness concerns
