Borussia Dortmund will host Schalke on Friday hoping to extend their already sizable lead atop the Bundesliga table to 14 points.
The league leaders have lost just once at their Westfalenstadion fortress this campaign – a 2-0 loss to second-placed Bayer Leverkusen in August – and are favourites to account for the 11th-placed side on the table on Friday.
Dortmund will take some tracking down in the second half of the season, even allowing for the long-term foot injury sustained by attacker Shinji Kagawa while on international duty with Japan at January’s Asian Cup.
Relegation-threatened Cologne face third-placed Bayern Munich on Saturday at RheinEnergieStadion, with the visitors aiming to extend their nine-game unbeaten streak in all competitions.
Tenth-placed Nuremberg are preparing to take on Bayer Leverkusen off the back of a morale-lifting 2-0 victory over Hamburg last Saturday, in which Israel midfielder Almog Cohen scored his first league goal for the club.
Despite lying in fifth place, Hannover have lost three of their past four league games but will be eyeing a return to form when they face lowly Wolfsburg, who have won just five games in 20 this league campaign under English manager Steve McLaren.
But Hannover will need to be wary of Wolfsburg’s new signings, bought with the funds raised from the sale of star striker Edin Dzeko to Manchester City.
McLaren added forward trio Patrick Helmes (Bayer Leverkusen), Tuncay Sanli (Stoke City) and Dieumerci Mbokani (Monaco) in a bid to bolster his firepower, also signing Anderlecht midfield enforcer Jan Polak, South Korea international Koo Ja-Cheol and Venezuelan prospect Yohandry Orozco.
Hoffenheim have the opportunity to back up their victory over Schalke last time out – their first since December 21 – when they host Kaiserslautern on Saturday, with the visitors bidding to avoid their third loss in succession.
Borussia Moenchengladbach host a bottom-of-the-table clash against Stuttgart, the loser of which will fill bottom spot on the table.
But the hosts have won two of their past three games and are hoping to continue their run to escape last place.
Fourth-placed Mainz can deepen the woes of Werder Bremen on Saturday when the two sides clash at the Stadion am Bruchweg, with last campaign’s third-placed side languishing in 15th this term.
On Sunday, Hamburg host St Pauli, having seen their five-match winning streak broken by Nuremberg in their last start.
Sixth-placed Freiburg are targeting a seventh match unbeaten when they welcome Eintracht Frankfurt to the Badenova Stadion.
