VfL Bochum vs. Werder Bremen preview: Werder Bremen look to go four unbeaten
Both teams will seek a win in order to widen the gap between them and relegation. Both currently sit on sixteen points ahead of Sunday's afternoon clash at the Vonovia Ruhrstadion.
VfL Bochum
With only a single home win this season, Bochum go into this game with perhaps some nerves seeing as they have struggled to perform well at the Vonovia Ruhrstadion.
However, one positive will be their form against teams below them as wins against Union Berlin and Darmstadt as well as draws against others mean that they are unbeaten against the sides currently below them.
Bochum will be strong in the air once again, no doubt, as they are the side with the second most aerial duels won in the Bundesliga (422).
Ahead of this weekend's clash, Bochum manager Thomas Letsch said: "We are in the happy situation that only Takuma Asano and Michael Esser are not available. We have 25 plus two healthy players on board."
Team News
Takuma Asano will miss the tie due to international duty with his country Japan in the Asia Cup. Michael Esser, however, will miss the fixture with a knee injury.
Werder Bremen
Werder Bremen go into this game with one of the hottest talents in the league in Marvin Duksch and will hope he continues from his eleven goal contributions this season.
Also, Bremen will be encouraged by the fact that they have only ever lost one single game versus Bochum with this loss coming in 2010.
Similarly, Bremen have scored twenty-three goals this season (which is five more than Bochum) and have done this with the least amounts of shots in the Bundesliga (172).
Lastly, ahead of Sunday's game and following a poor result in a test match, coach Ole Werner said: "The test match was certainly anything but good and doesn't give you a good feeling a week before the start. But we also experienced it the other way around last year."
Team News
Naby Keïta is unavailable due to international duty with his country in the Africa Cup of Nations. Leon Opitz is out with an ankle injury. Dudu is ill and Amos Pieper is out with a muscular problem. Both Nicolai Rapp and Milos Veljkovic are out with injuries too.