Hosts seeking to finish winless run

Hoffenheim will try to assert their first win since October 28 after they play host to Bochum on Friday.

Hoffenheim

Hoffenheim are at present enduring a poor spell of kind, having didn’t win any of their final 5 aggressive matches. After dropping to Borussia Dortmund within the DFB-Pokal, Die Kraichgauer went on to lose to Bayer Leverkusen earlier than taking part in out attracts towards Augsburg and Mainz.

Pellegrino Matarazzo’s aspect have been unable so as to add to their 20-point tally in final Saturday’s assembly with Borussia Mönchengladbach. Though Wout Weghorst managed to degree the scoring following Alassane Pléa’s opener, Nathan Ngoumou scored a late winner to sentence Hoffeheim to their first away defeat of the Bundesliga season.

Regardless of taking simply two factors from their final 4 league matches, Hoffenheim occupy sixth place with a two-point cushion over the perimeters chasing from behind. If they’re to stay within the struggle for European soccer, Saturday’s hosts want to start out selecting up wins on the PreZero Area, having received simply one in every of their six house league video games.

Group Information

Bambasé Conté, Marco John, Dennis Geiger and Mërgim Berisha are dominated out by harm, whereas defender Ozan Kabak is a doubt as a result of a hip difficulty. Hoffenheim are additionally with out the companies of Kevin Akpoguma, who will serve a one-match suspension for an accumulation of yellow playing cards.

Bochum

Bochum have established a four-point cushion to the underside three courtesy of a five-game unbeaten run. Thomas Letsch’s aspect will definitely head into Friday’s contest in a optimistic temper after beating Wolfsburg 3-1 final weekend to document their first house victory of the season. Patrick Osterhage and Bernardo helped Bochum set up a two-goal lead, earlier than Mattias Svanberg discovered the web to cut back the deficit in first-half stoppage time. After retaining Wolfsburg at bay within the second interval, Die Unabsteigbaren added a late third objective by Christopher Antwi-Adjei to ensure of the three factors.

Friday’s guests now have the prospect to clinch consecutive league victories for the primary time this season. They might be quietly assured about their probabilities of claiming most factors after thrashing Hoffenheim 5-2 when the 2 sides final met in February.

Nevertheless, if they’re to beat Hoffenheim, they might want to present extra attacking intent than in latest away video games, having failed to attain in three of their final 5 matches on the highway.

Group Information

Bochum are with out Michael Esser, Ivan Ordets, Lys Mousset and Mohammed Tolba as a result of harm. In the meantime, Keven Schlotterbeck is suspended after selecting up his fifth reserving of the Bundesliga season.

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