1899 Hoffenheim v VfB Stuttgart
Hoffenheim have drawn four and lost three of their so far seven BL meetings with Stuttgart. The Swabians are one of only three current BL teams that Hoffenheim have never beaten in the German top flight (the other two teams are Bayern and Leverkusen).Hoffenheim's last seven games on home soil all saw them share the spoils. If 1899 draw with Stuttgart they would set a new BL record for the most consecutive home draws.
In total TSG are unbeaten in 10 games at Rhein-Neckar-Arena (W2, D8). The only other time they have gone 10 consecutive BL home games without defeat was directly after they won promotion in 2008.
Stuttgart have only won one of their last eight league games on the road (D2, L5) when they emphatically beat Hamburg 4-0 two weeks ago.
Hoffenheim suffered their worst-ever defeat in professional football when they were beaten 7-1 away at Munich last weekend.
The Swabians have netted a league-high 18 goals since the turn of the year.
Stuttgart striker Martin Harnik has scored more goals in 2012 than any other player in the league (eight).
Both sides also have strikers in their squads who are enduring prolonged goal droughts, though. Hoffenheim's Ryan Babel hasn't scored in 1595 minutes of BL football while his teammate Srdjan Lakic has gone 902 minutes without scoring. VfB forward Cacau hasn't found the back of the net in 730 minutes.
Tamas Hajnal has created a league-high 63 chances, including five assists, but has also posted more shots without scoring than any other player in the league (37).
VfB gaffer Bruno Labbadia has already faced Hoffenheim 13 times in his managerial career (W6, D2, L5), against no other team has the former striker overseen as many games.
1. FC Nürnberg v VfL Wolfsburg
Wolfsburg won this season's reverse meeting with Nürnberg 2-1 courtesy of a brace by Croatian striker Mario Mandzukic.The Wolves have only enjoyed one win in their nine BL outings away at Nürnberg, though (D3, L5).
FCN beat Wolfsburg 2-1 in the corresponding fixture last year which lead to the sacking of then Wolves manager Pierre Littbarski who was in turn replaced by the current VfL gaffer Felix Magath.
Wolfsburg have gone 11 league games away from home without a win and have already equalled the negative club record in that respect set in 2003-04 and 2006-07. Should they fail to beat FCN they will have gone longer without an away win than ever before in the German top flight.
Felix Magath's men have only picked up five points away from home this term - fewer than any other team in the league.
FCN have won three of the last four BL matches on home soil, including the last two at Easycredit-Stadion. The only away team to win at Nürnberg during that period were reigning champions Dortmund who beat Dieter Hecking's men 2-0 in February.
Wolfsburg currently stand at 124 draws in the Bundesliga and are only two away from conceding their 750th goal in the German top flight.
FCN defender Philipp Wollscheid has won 72% of his challenges, the best duel success rate posted by any player in the Bundesliga this term.
In-form VfL winger Ashkan Dejagah will miss the game against Nürnberg due to a yellow-card suspension.
Wolfsburg centre-back Alexander Madlung is set to make his 225th BL appearance while Nürnberg's Dominic Maroh could feature in his 50th game in the German top flight.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen v Borussia Mönchengladbach
Gladbach have only enjoyed one win in their last 29 BL encounters with Leverkusen (D13, L15) when they beat Bayer 6-3 on the second day of last season.Against no team have Bayer enjoyed more home wins in the Bundesliga than against Gladbach (17, same as against Dortmund, Bochum and Lautern).
The last seven BL meetings between these two sides have seen a total of 33 goals, equalling an average of 4.7 goals per game.
Gladbach could celebrate their 200th away win or suffer their 500th defeat in the Bundesliga against Leverkusen.
Only four teams in BL history have conceded fewer goals after 25 games than Gladbach have this term (15), three of these four teams ended up winning the league title at the end of the season.
Robin Dutt's men have only suffered one defeat in their last seven BL games at BayArena (W4, D2) when they lost their last home game before Christmas 3-0 to Nürnberg.
Bayer are eight points behind third-placed Gladbach and will probably have to get something from this game if they want to keep their hopes of qualifying for next season's Champions League alive.
Gladbach will miss Tony Jantschke due to suspension. The defender has so far started all of the Foals' 25 league games this campaign.
Bayer striker Kießling has scored five and assisted one of Leverkusen's last 12 league goals. The German international has netted as many goals in 2012 as the current leader of the BL scorer charts Mario Gomez (five).
Foals manager Lucien Favre has won three and lost none of his last four encounters with Bayer. The Swiss suffered his only defeat against B04 over four years ago in December 2007 when he was still in charge of Hertha BSC Berlin (0-3).
Borussia Dortmund v SV Werder Bremen
Dortmund have lost more games against Bremen than against any other team in the Bundesliga (39).The reigning champions have only lost one of their last seven league encounters with Werder, though (W4, D2).
Borussia have won 25 of their so far 43 BL home games against Bremen and have only lost nine of these encounters (D9). Werder's last victory away at Dortmund came in April 2007 when Thomas Schaaf's men beat the Yellow-Blacks 2-0.
After a run of eight straight wins in the league Dortmund failed to take all three points for the first time in nearly three months when they were held to a stalemate away at Augsburg last Saturday.
Additionally, it was the first game in which Dortmund had failed to score after a run of 20 games without drawing a blank.
Dortmund are unbeaten in nine league games on home soil. The last BL home game in which they failed to take all three points was a 1-1 draw with Kaiserslautern in December.
Jürgen Klopp's men have gone 19 games without defeat (W15, D4), currently the longest unbeaten run in the Bundesliga. Dortmund have never gone longer without defeat in the German top flight (they also went 19 games unbeaten in 1991-92).
Only two sides in BL history have ever thrown away a lead of five or more points over the second placed team after at least 25 games: Schalke had a seven-point cushion over eventual champions Stuttgart 26 games into the 2006-07 campaign, while in 2001-02, with only three games to go, Leverkusen were five points clear of Dortmund, but failed to retain that lead and ended up being leap-frogged by Borussia on the penultimate day.
Only Bayern's Mario Gomez (21 goals) and Schalke's Klaas-Jan Huntelaar (19 goals) have currently netted more goals than Borussia striker Robert Lewandowski (16 goals). The Polish forward has opened the scoring with six of his 16 goals, only Gomez has fired his team 1-0 up more often (nine times).
Werder gaffer Thomas Schaaf has lost 11 of his so far 25 BL encounters with Dortmund during his managerial career, against no other side has the current longest-serving manager in the Bundesliga lost that many games in the top flight
FC Augsburg v 1. FSV Mainz 05
Augsburg celebrated their first ever win in the Bundesliga in this season's reverse meeting with Mainz when they beat FSV 1-0 courtesy of a converted penalty by Jan-Ingwer Callsen-Bracker in October.These two sides have met 10 times in all competitions with Augsburg winning four and Mainz winning two of these encounters (D4).
FCA are unbeaten in six home games (W3, D3) and have gone three games on home soil without conceding, two feats they achieved for the first time in the German top flight.
Mainz have won none of their last 11 BL games on the road. Only once before in their BL history have FSV gone more than 10 games away from home without a full three-point haul: In 2004-05 they also went 11 away games without a win, but managed to pick up all three points in what would have been the 12th game of this run.
Mainz have dropped the most (22), Augsburg the joint second-most (17) points from winning positions.
Thomas Tuchel's men have already scored a divisional-high 11 goals in the opening 15 minutes this term. Only two of Mainz' last 13 league goals have been scored after the 30th minute.
Augsburg, on the other hand, have scored 19 of their 25 goals this campaign after the half-time break. No other side in the league have netted such a high percentage of their goals in the second period (76%).
This means that FCA have only scored six goals in the first 45 minutes (same as Lautern), no team has netted fewer goals before the interval.
FSV striker Mohamed Zidan has found the back of the net in each of Mainz‘ last six league games, the last player to score in six consecutive BL games was Edin Dzeko back in 2008/09. The Egyptian forward is set to make his 150th BL appearance this weekend.
His partner up-front, Adam Szalai, will miss the game after picking up a second yellow in last week's 2-1 win over Nürnberg.
Hamburger SV v SC Freiburg
Freiburg and Hamburg will face each other for the 26th time in the Bundesliga. Freiburg have only won five of these encounters, while Hamburg have enjoyed 12 wins over SCF (D8).Freiburg's 2-0 win in the corresponding fixture last season ended a run of nine winless BL games at Hamburg for them (D2, L7).
Freiburg have failed to score in 12 of their so far 25 BL meetings with Hamburg, only against Bayern have SCF been shut out more often in the Bundesliga (13 times).
HSV have gone four games without a win (D1, L3) and, as a result of that, have seen their cushion over the teams in the relegation zone reduced to four points.
Freiburg have gone two games without defeat on the trot for only the second time this season (W1, D1). The first time they achieved that feat this campaign came between the 12th and the 15th day when they remained unbeaten for four games.
SCF have gone six away games without picking up all three points, but at least kept their first clean sheet away from home this season when they held Gladbach to a stalemate last weekend.
Hamburg have only won two of their first 13 home games this season - a first in the club's history.
This game will see the team with the worst defensive record at home (Hamburg have conceded 25 goals in 13 games at Imtech Arena) take on the team with the worst defensive record away from home (Freiburg have conceded 35 goals in their so far 12 games on the road this term).
Hamburg have shipped more goals than any other team since the turn of the year (18).
Current HSV manager Thorsten Fink was on the pitch when Freiburg celebrated their first-ever win in the Bundesliga in August 1993; Freiburg beat Wattenscheid, where Fink was playing at the time, 4-1 at home.
Hertha BSC v FC Bayern München
Hertha BSC have won only one and lost 12 of the last 18 league encounters with Bayen (D5), including the last three in a row. The Berlin-based side's only win over the record champions came in February 2009 when they beat FCB 2-1 at home.The 1-0 home win over Werder Bremen two weeks ago was Hertha's only victory in the top flight in over four months.
In total, Hertha have only enjoyed one win in their last 14 league games (D4, L9).
The Blue-Whites have lost seven of their last eight league games, scoring only two goals in the process.
Bayern are yet to win a BL away game in 2012. Jupp Heynckes' men have only picked up two points from their four BL games on the road since the turn of the year, scoring only two goals in the process.
Bayern have gone 314 minutes away from home in all competitions without scoring. None of their last 47 goal attempts on the road have ended up in the back of the net.
Arjen Robben and Frank Ribery have been directly involved in 10 of Bayern's last 13 league goals (including the last six). On the road Robben is yet to chalk up a scorer point this term, while Frank Ribery has at least scored and assisted one of Bayern's 15 away goals.
Hertha skipper Levan Kobiashvili will miss the game against Bayern after picking up a second yellow in last week's 1-0 defeat at Köln.
Bayern defender Jerome Boateng and FCB striker Ivica Olic both made their first BL appearances for Hertha, while the Berlin-based side's goal-keeper Thomas Kraft and outfield players Christian Lell and Andreas Ottl came through Bayern's youth ranks.
Current Hertha manager Otto Rehhagel was in charge of Bayern between July 1995 and April 1996.
This game will see the two oldest current managers in the Bundesliga face each other. Rehhagel (73) and Heynckes (66) have together overseen a total of 1426 BL games.
1. FC Kaiserslautern v FC Schalke 04
Lautern have won their last three league encounters with Schalke, conceding only one goal in the process. Schalke's last win over FCK came over six years ago when they beat the Red Devils 2-0 on the road in January 2006.FCK beat Schalke 5-0 in the corresponding fixture last season, it was the Red Devils‘ biggest win over the Royal Blues in the Bundesliga.
Lautern have gone 15 league games without a win (D9, L6). If Lautern fail to beat Schalke they will equal a negative club record of 16 consecutive BL games without a win set in 1967-68.
The Red Devils have gone three games (297 minutes) without scoring, their longest goal drought since 2005-06 when they went four games (378 minutes) without finding the back of the net.
Lautern have only netted one goal in their last six BL games.
All three goals Lautern have netted since the turn of the year have been scored by defenders (Dick (two), Jessen).
Schalke have only won two of their last six league games (D1, L3) and have lost their last three on the road.
The Red Devils have by far scored the fewest goals in the Bundesliga (16), while only Bayern (58) have netted more goals this term than Schalke (54).
The last time a S04 player netted more goals in a whole BL season than Klaas-Jan Huntelaar has scored after 25 games this term (19) was back in 2000-01 when Danish forward Ebbe Sand netted 22 for Schalke and won the BL top-scorer canon.
FCK defender Mathias Abel joined the Red Devils from Schalke, where he only made one BL appearance, in 2008. Abel has won six of his seven league encounters with his former club (L1).
Hannover 96 v 1. FC Köln
Hannover have won four and lost one of their last five BL home games against Köln. Their only home defeat against the BIllygoats during that period came in March 2010 when they lost 4-1 to the FC.Köln have won the last two league encounters with Hannover, scoring six goals and conceding none.
Going back to last season, Hannover have gone 13 BL games at AWD Arena without defeat (W7, D6), a new club record.
The Reds are the only side apart from Gladbach who are still unbeaten on home soil this term.
The Reds have lost none of the last 26 BL home games in which they have scored (W20, D6). The last time Hannover lost a home game despite scoring came nearly two years ago when they were beaten 4-1 by Köln.
Both sides have enjoyed eight wins this season, but Köln have suffered more than twice as many defeats as 96 (13 compared to six).
Köln have lost six of their last nine BL games on the road and have shipped two or more goals in six of these nine encounters.
Mirko Slomka's men have netted a league-high 53.3% (16 out of 30) of their BL goals this term following set-pieces. Five of Hannover's last seven goals have come from dead-ball situations.
Köln will miss Jajalo and Podolski who were both shown straight reds in the Billygoats 1-0 home win over Hertha last weekend. Podolski has scored 16 and assisted four of Köln's 32 league goals and has hence been directly involved in 63% of their goals this term; no other team depends on a single player as much as Köln.
96 defender Christian Schulz will be eligible again after missing the Reds‘ last game due to a yellow-card suspension and is set to make his 250th BL appearance.
