Borussia Monchengladbach will be looking to follow up their incredible thrashing of Bayern Munich in midweek by defeating an in-form VfL Bochum side at Borussia-Park in the final fixture of the weekend's Bundesliga action.
The hosts recorded an historic 5-0 victory over the reigning champions in the DFB-Pokal on Wednesday evening, whilst their visitors on Sunday also progressed from the second round in midweek, which followed up their back-to-back victories in the league over the last couple of weeks.
Match preview
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Nobody could have predicted the outcome of Gladbach's historical Wednesday night prior to a ball being kicked; not even the most optimistic of loyal supporters.
Taking into account the full-strength 11 fielded by the Bavarians, as well as their near-complete domination of German football since the turn of the century, much of the focus has been on the disastrous capitulation of Bayern in the aftermath of the 5-0 scoreline.
However, Adi Hutter's side deserve an enormous amount of credit for the way that they played - their aggressive pressing from the off paid off immediately and noticeably unsettled their opponents.
It took a great amount of character and courage to play this way against a side that has scored 60 goals already this campaign, but 20-year-old Kouadio Kone's goal inside the opening two minutes set the hosts on their way to an unforgettable night.
The recently-returned Ramy Bensebaini added a brace to increase their lead to 3-0 by the 21st minute, before Breel Embolo netted a brace of his own in the second half to create a much-needed lift for the Foals.
Gladbach would not have been in the most confident of moods heading into the cup tie, after last weekend's poor 1-0 defeat at Hertha Berlin has left Hutter's team in 12th place in the Bundesliga table at the time of writing.
It has been a difficult and particularly inconsistent start for Austrian boss Hutter since his arrival in the summer, but he will now be looking for his side to use Wednesday's result and performance as a springboard to kickstart their season, beginning on Sunday.
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Meanwhile, Bochum may not have blown away the reigning champions in their midweek cup tie like Sunday's opponents, but they progressed to the third round after another positive display nonetheless.
Milos Pantovic scored in each half to give Die Unabsteigbaren a comfortable 2-0 lead at home to Augsburg, but despite being pegged back by two quickfire goals, Thomas Reis' side triumphed via a penalty shootout.
That cup success effectively made it three straight wins for Bochum in all competitions, after they recorded back-to-back wins against Greuther Furth and Eintracht Frankfurt in the Bundesliga since the return from the international break.
Those victories have lifted Bochum out of the relegation zone and into 14th place as things stand heading into the weekend, with a four point cushion between them and the relegation playoff spot.
Just four points and four goals scored from their opening seven Bundesliga fixtures prior to those wins meant expectations were low, and an immediate return to the 2.Bundesliga seemed a likely outcome, but the upturn in results have provided fresh hope for Reis to lead the newly-promoted side to an unlikely survival.
Although this is their first competitive meeting with Gladbach in over 10 years, another reason for Bochum to be positive ahead of Sunday's fixture is the unusually strong record they hold against their opponents.
In fact, in the 11 top-flight meetings between 2003 and 2010, Bochum were unbeaten against the Foals, with just the single defeat in the relegation/promotion playoff encounter in 2011 tarnishing that run slightly.
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Team News
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Gladbach's important forward Marcus Thuram made his return from injury in the midweek thrashing against Bayern, but a 17-minute cameo will not have been enough for him to gain the match fitness required to start from the off on Sunday.
Jordan Beyer's muscle strain saw him replaced shortly after half time in that tie and he has been ruled out of this one as a result.
His absence is likely to force the only change from that sensational win, with Luca Netz potentially coming into the side at left wing-back, which would push Bensebaini back onto the left of the three-man defence.
Mamadou Doucoure, Stefan Lainer, Christoph Kramer and Tony Jantschke are the other absentees for the hosts.
As for the visitors, they continue to miss Simon Zoller through an ACL injury. The striker had started the season so brightly but his unfortunate injury has ruled him out for the majority of the season, if not all of it.
Maxim Leitsch and Herbert Bockhorn are the other two players confirmed to miss this trip, whilst Robert Tesche has been listed as a doubt after missing the last few matches due to a hip injury.
After starting on the bench for the cup tie, regular first-teamers Manuel Riemann, Vasilis Lampropoulos, Cristian Gamboa, Eduard Lowen, Takuma Asano and Danny Blum should return to the starting lineup.
Borussia Monchengladbach possible starting lineup:
Sommer; Ginter, Elvedi, Bensebaini; Scally, Zakaria, Kone, Netz; Hofmann, Stindl; Embolo
VfL Bochum possible starting lineup:
Riemann; Gamboa, Masovic, Lampropoulos, Soares; Lowen, Losilla, Rexhbecaj; Asano, Polter, Blum
We say: Borussia Monchengladbach 2-1 VfL Bochum
Two in-form sides facing off should make for an intriguing encounter on Sunday, which could easily see them cancel each other out.
However, on their day, Monchengladbach should be able to see off Bochum and would be expected to, which we see them managing only narrowly here due to the confidence of their visitors.
Top tip
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Borussia Monchengladbach win with a probability of 53.29%. A draw had a probability of 24.2% and a win for VfL Bochum had a probability of 22.49%.
The most likely scoreline for a Borussia Monchengladbach win was 1-0 with a probability of 11.5%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (9.68%) and 2-0 (9.67%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (11.51%), while for a VfL Bochum win it was 0-1 (6.86%). The actual scoreline of 2-1 was predicted with a 9.7% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Borussia Monchengladbach would win this match.
