2. Bundesliga Preview: SC Paderborn 07 vs. Karlsruher SC

Promotion hopefuls Paderborn entertain midtable side Karlsruhe in what could potentially be their last home game of the season. Ralf Kettemann’s men could finish in third place when the league campaign concludes next week, which will add a playoff tie against Bundesliga’s 16th-placed team.

Paderborn still have a solid chance for promotion despite only picking up a single point from their last three games against the current top three teams. A 1-1 draw with Hannover followed by a narrow defeat to ten-man Schalke at the end of April.

And last week’s 5-1 reverse in Elversberg was a huge blow to their promotion hopes as they have looked a totally different side to the one that broke the club’s record for successive wins at one point of the season.

However, fourth-placed Paderborn are still only a point behind Elversberg with two rounds left to play. Meanwhile, Karlsruhe secured their safety with a 2-1 home win over Darmstadt on matchday 32.

Karlsruhe held Paderborn goalless until the last 25 minutes of the reverse fixture, but the final score was 4-0 to the visitors with Laurin Curda scoring the first two goals. Paderborn will be without Steffen Tigges on Friday as the experienced striker was sent off in injury-time against Elversberg.

Predicted Lineups

Paderborn: Seimen; Scheller, Götze ©, Brackelmann; Curda, Baur, Castaneda, Sticker; Müller, Marino, Bilbija

Karlsruhe: Bernat; Rapp, Franke, Kobald; Jung, Herold; Förster, Müller, Wanitzek ©; Ben Farhat, Fukuda