Friday:
Schalke v Dortmund
Saturday:
Energie v Bremen
Bayern v Cologne
Stuttgart v Hoffenheim
Karlsruhe v Eintracht
Monchengladbach v Hannover
Wolfsburg v Hertha
Arminia v Bochum
Sunday:
Leverkusen v Hamburg
No doubting the top game in this week's Bundesliga action. All eyes on Gelsenkirchen on Friday night where Dortmund make the short trip for the big derby and there's a tinge of revenge in the air after their controversial meeting back in September. Schalke, quite understandably feel aggrieved about the circumstances in which Dortmund battled back to a 3-3 draw. The ugly words 'match' and 'fixing' reared their heads in the aftermath of that one. For those that missed it, a précis of events that day. Schalke took a 3-0 lead ten minutes into the second half, but Dortmund hit back with goals from Neven Subotic and Alexander Frei. Moments after Frei's goal, referee Lutz Wagner saw fit to dismiss Christian Pander and Fabian Ernst, leaving Schalke hanging on with nine men. Neither offence seemed to warrant a red card, but that was as nothing to the controversy over Dortmund's equaliser. Over 80,000 people packed the Westfalenstadion, but only one person saw a foul when the ball hit Mladen Kristajic's arm - there was nothing he could do about it - with three minutes remaining. Up stepped Frei to bang it home and the referee blew for full time, despite there being one minute of normal time remaining and a significant amount of stoppages to play. Half the drama of that one tonight and we're all laughing, but it looks unlikely. Schalke are in a worrying slump and the pressure is mounting on Fred Rutten and sporting director Andy Möller. Dortmund would love nothing better than to hammer a significant nail in the coffin of their big rivals and look more than capable of doing so.
Hertha are the leaders and they go to Wolfsburg on Saturday. The Wolves are without goalkeeper Diego Benaglio, but fans won't be worried after two horrid gaffes in the UEFA Cup handed St Etienne a 2-0 win in midweek. With Andriy Voronin in great form (there's a sentence I thought I'd never have to type), Hertha are coping without Marko Pantelic and will have to do so again here while Wolfsburg are again without their own hot-shot, the Brazilian Grafite. Hoffenheim will look to get their possibly fading title challenge back on track at Stuttgart where the promise is of goals, goals, goals. Twelve have gone in in the last two Stuttgart games and they are unbeaten since Markus Babbel took the reins there in November. Former Stuttgart keeper Timo Hildebrand misses out on a reunion as he's injured while Ralf Rangnick may look to kick start the title challenge by going in with a three-man attack. Expect goals.
Bayern host Cologne with all eyes once again on Lukas Podolski. He infuriated his current employers with his celebrating with the Cologne fans after scoring in Bayern's 3-0 win at the Müngersdorfer and later secured a deal to return to the club he clearly loves and is loved at. With Luca Toni injured - and bang out of form - Podolski is in line for a rare start, although Jurgen Klinsmann's bizarre preference for Landon Donovan may scupper that yet. On Sunday, Leverkusen, in bewilderingly inconsistent form, take on Hamburg who have Ivica Olic back from his four-game suspension and Mladen Petric from his two-game ban. That'll be a worry for Bruno Labbadia and his charges. Leverkusen are equally able to score a dozen and ship just as many. Again, this could be a goal-fest.
Should Karlsruhe beat Eintracht, the Frankfurters will be sucked right into the mire at the bottom and KSC did beat high-flying Hamburg last week, so that could be an interesting one. Bochum pulled themselves out of the bottom three with their win over neighbours Schalke last week and would go above Arminia with a win in Bielefeld. And there's another big one down at the bottom where Hannover travel to Monchengladbach. Should Hannover win, they'd give themselves a bit of breathing space, while Gladbach - improved lately - would put themselves right back in it. So that'll be a draw.
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