die Adler face Stuttgart

A month ago if you were to look at this match you would have thought die Roten would be able to handle the Eintracht Frankfurt with ease. What a difference a month makes as over the last four matches Friedhelm Funkel's club as found last year's form and despite considerable injuries have accumulated nine points during the period, making them one of the hottest clubs in the Bundesliga. Over the first seven years of the new season, the situation was bleak as the club's only points were draws and they were mired in the relegation zone. However the victories over Karlsruhe, Energie Cottbus and Gladbach as well as a tough 2-1 loss to Bayern and completely reversed their year. Injuries continue to be an issue as they are missing Ioannis Amanatidis, Zlatan Bajramovic, Christoph Preuß, Alex Meier and Japan international Junichi Inamoto. In the attacking front veteran Greek international Nikos Liberopoulos will likely pair with Ümit Korkmaz formerly of Rapid Wien, who although more of an attacking midfielder will pose problems at striker. Martin Fenin is another choice and while yet to be seen, the combination of Korkmaz and Fenin could be pose problems for the best defenders. With injuries in-mind they are likely to use a back-line of Patrick Ochs, Marco Russ, Aaron Galindo and Benjamin Köhler.

Armin Veh will be buoyed by his clubs 2-0 victory mid-week against Belgrade's FK Partizan in the UEFA Cup but they need to carry that form over domestically. Following losses to surging FC Köln and Hamburger a victory is important for their long-term goals. They head into the match without any new injuries from the Partizan match and will be without Khalid Boulahrouz and Yıldıray Baştürk.