Two sides mired in the bottom half of the table look to make giant strides on Saturday as Eintracht Frankfurt play host to Borussia Mönchengladbach at Commerzbank-Arena.
Frankfurt sit on a comfortable 16 points, but are only 11th in the 18-team league table. They also have a bad taste in their mouth after being drubbed 4-0 by leaders Bayer Leverkusen two weeks ago before the international break in a highlight Friday-night fixture.
Gladbach come into the game after some much-needed rest and after a 0-0 home draw with struggling VfB Stuttgart two weeks ago. They need more strong results, though, having won just once in their last eight league matches.
Frankfurt continue to be without striker Ioannis Amanatidis after knee surgery, and Martin Fenin is also out. Nikos Liberopoulos will miss the match as he tends to a death in his family.
Gladbach are without the usual players as Moses Lamidi, Raul Bobadilla, Christian Dorda and Filip Daems all continues to miss out for Michael Frontzeck's side.
This should be a very tightly-contested game that slightly favors Frankfurt playing at home. If they can put aside their drubbing at the hands of Leverkusen, Frankfurt should be able to recover nicely.
REVIEW:
A second-half own goal doomed Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday, sparking a 2-1 victory by Borussia Mönchengladbach at Commerzbank-Arena.
After a scoreless first half, an unfortunate moment for Frankfurt gifted Gladbach the lead on 54 minutes. A cross from Tobias Levels came in from the right, but an attempted clear by Marco Russ deflected into the goal off the head of goalkeeper Oka Nikolov.
With 65 minutes played, Gladbach went two goals in front as Roel Brouwers got his head to a Marco Reus corner, and the ball flew past Nikolov to make it 2-0.
Frankfurt made it interesting in the 86th minute when Pirmin Schwegler scored from the spot after Rob Friend's handball in the area, but it was too little too late for the home side.