With faint hopes of survival fading by the week, basement side Schalke 04 travel to Bremen's Weserstadion on Saturday searching for even a point to boost morale.
Hosts Werder Bremen, meanwhile, pulled further away from the Bundesliga's bottom three last week, thanks to a third win in six league matches.
Match preview
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Last time out for hapless Schalke, a trio of Bayern big guns - Robert Lewandowski, Thomas Muller and David Alaba - scored the goals as the Bavarian giants effortlessly moved seven points clear at the top of the Bundesliga table with a 4-0 win at their expense.
Now a full ten points adrift of safety with less than half the season remaining, perhaps their only hope lies in Hoppe. Young Californian striker Matthew Hoppe has played just over 500 minutes of senior football to date, after being called up to the Schalke first team from the reserves in November, due to the absence of experienced pair Goncalo Paciencia and Vedad Ibisevic and Benito Raman's form reaching a low ebb.
Starting for a side rooted to the foot of the table, the young American netted a sensational hat-trick earlier this month to end Die Konigsblauen's 30-game winless run - just one match shy of equalling Tasmania Berlin's perversely 'treasured' league record - in a 4-0 defeat of Hoffenheim.
The club's youngest-ever treble scorer was also on target in subsequent outings against Eintracht Frankfurt and FC Koln, taking his tally so far to five goals in eight games.
In order to aid Hoppe's one-man recovery efforts, the Schalke hierarchy have turned to the transfer market in search of inspiration for an abject squad, recently adding old boys Sead Kolasinac and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar to the playing staff.
Bringing the band back together did not quite stretch as far as re-signing Gelsenkirchen-born Mesut Ozil when the former Real Madrid star finally left Arsenal last week, but they did also manage to bring in William from Wolfsburg to fill their problem right-back spot - where Timo Becker has most recently deputised.
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Werder's own US-born striking sensation Josh Sargent crashed home a superb 25-yarder to cap their fine 4-1 win at Hertha Berlin last weekend, as two out-of-form teams clashed in the capital - Davie Selke's early penalty setting the visitors on the road to a much-needed three points.
Veteran centre-back Omer Toprak also struck for Die Werderaner at the Olympiastadion and has now scored twice in his last four top-flight matches, having not previously found the net in almost four years. Incidentally, it is also the first time in the Turkey international's 12-year Bundesliga career that he has registered more than once in a season.
With that victory giving Florian Kohfeldt's men some breathing space in the ongoing battle for survival - taking them 13th, six points clear of the drop zone - they will now expect to extract another maximum haul from crisis-torn Schalke this Saturday.
In their previous outing against Champions League contenders Borussia Monchengladbach, there was little to choose between the sides, so the club that only secured survival in a playoff last season should certainly be set on avoiding such a nail-biting conclusion this term.
Werder Bremen Bundesliga form: WLDWLW
Werder Bremen form (all competitions): WLDWLW
Schalke 04 Bundesliga form: LLWLLL
Schalke 04 form (all competitions): WLWLLL
Team News
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Werder boss Florian Kohfeldt will be without Swedish left-back Ludwig Augustinsson, who has a thigh problem, and Patrick Erras for Saturday's game, while top scorer Niclas Fullkrug is not expected to return until next month due to his ankle injury.
Highly-rated Milot Rashica has been employed from the bench against both Gladbach and Hertha, but Kohfeldt is unlikely to hand the talented forward a start yet, as he aims to overcome an ongoing thigh issue.
Davie Selke (also thigh) and Omer Toprak (ankle) are additional doubts for the home side, who are expected to pair Josh Sargent with fellow youngster Romano Schmid up front.
Christian Gross continues to be blighted with injury issues, as Nassim Boujellab, Kilian Ludewig, Goncalo Paciencia and Salif Sane are out of action for Schalke. Those also in doubt for the trip north include Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, who has a calf injury, and Danish goalkeeper Frederik Ronnow (groin).
However, new signings Sead Kolasinac and William are set to fill both full-back roles, with Benito Raman, Amine Harit and Mark Uth lining up in support of scoring sensation Matthew Hoppe.
Werder Bremen possible starting lineup:
Pavlenka; Veljkovic, Moisander, Friedl; Gebre Selassie, Bittencourt, Eggestein, Mbom, Agu; Sargent, Schmid
Schalke 04 possible starting lineup:
Fahrmann; William, Kabak, Nastasic, Kolasinac; Stambouli, Serdar; Raman, Uth, Harit; Hoppe
We say: Werder Bremen 2-1 Schalke 04
There can be no significant reason for backing struggling Schalke to come good this week, even against an inconsistent Bremen outfit.
Instead, the home team can capitalise on the continuing demise of Die Konigsblauen by picking up rare back-to-back Bundesliga wins.
Top betting 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 Werder Bremen win with a probability of 49.52%. A draw had a probability of 25.4% and a win for Schalke 04 had a probability of 25.1%.
The most likely scoreline for a Werder Bremen win was 1-0 with a probability of 11.69%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (9.4%) and 2-0 (9.11%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (12.06%), while for a Schalke 04 win it was 0-1 (7.74%). The actual scoreline of 1-1 was predicted with a 12.1% likelihood.
