Bundesliga round 20

Friday:
Hoffenheim v Leverkusen
Saturday:
Bochum v Schalke
Cologne v Karlsruhe
Bremen Monchengladbach
Hannover v Stuttgart
Eintracht v Wolfsburg
Hertha v Bayern
Sunday:
Dortmund v Cottbus
Hamburg v Arminia

Hoffenheim have a chance to forge ahead as they're involved in the Friday night game in the Bundesliga, at home to European hopefuls Bayer. The SAP backed side have proved strong, but recent form is shaky and they're drawing too many at the moment. Thanks to the combined incompetence of the sides around them, they're still top, but Leverkusen will fancy a piece of them tonight. Carlos Edurado is back from suspension for Ralf Rangnick's men after his set-to with Ivica Olic, and a defeat for Leverkusen will all but see them out of the running for a UEFA Cup spot.

Olic too is back for Bayern as they face off against fellow front runners Hertha in what is possibly game of the week. The Bavarians got back on track with the win over Dortmund last week, but this promises to be a tougher test in the capital. Luca Toni. What to say? He was rubbish again for his country on Tuesday and looks like the shambling twin brother of the man who banged in all those goals for La Viola in Italy not so long ago. The ruminations over Franck Ribéry's future doesn't help either. Hertha are without a few key players and this is a tough test for Lucien Favre's side.

Also up at the pointy end, Hamburg host Arminia Bielefeld on Sunday, though Martin Jol is sweating on the availability of Marko Pantelic. Sent off last week, SV appealed and the outcome is yet to be decided. Dortmund face Energie at the Westfalonstadion hoping to get back up there. Energie have improved, but still struggle away and Dortmund's encouraging, counterattacking performance will hearten those fans in the Ruhr valley. The other side of the river, Schalke have their problems, but should have few troubles in getting past Bochum. Stuttgart face last week's big losers Hannover and are scoring far too many goals for it to be an issue. Bremen, meanwhile, face Gladbach. While a point against the league leaders was a decent result for them, doing it two weeks running is a tough task and Bremen are hot favourites here.

Eintracht face Wolfsburg in what should be a goal frenzy. With the likes of Grafite on one side and Nikos Liberopoulos on the other, and with the Volkswagen-owned side yet to win on their travels, this could be an interesting one. The Frankfurters need the points to pull clear of trouble with Felix Magath needing points to maintain a UEFA Cup spot. The big game at the bottom end sees Cologne host Karlsruhe, the latter being the big winners last week with a highly unexpected win over Hamburg. With two poor defences on show, this could be another high scoring match.