Stuttgart vs. Mainz 05 preview: Can the visitors end their away day blues?
Mainz 05 will attempt to end their 14-game winless away league run when they face Stuttgart at MHPArena on Sunday.
Stuttgart
Stuttgart will have to pick themselves up after losing out to Bayer Leverkusen in Tuesday’s DFB-Pokal clash. Die Schwaben took the lead on two occasions thanks to efforts from Waldemar Anton and Chris Führich. However, Leverkusen cancelled out both of those goals, before Jonathan Tah netted a 90th-minute winner to condemn Stuttgart to a 3-2 defeat in the quarter-final tie.
While they would have disappointed to see their cup run come to an end, Stuttgart are still in the middle of a successful Bundesliga campaign. Having won 13, drawn one and lost six of their 20 league matches, Sebastian Hoeneß’s side are currently sitting in third spot with a four-point cushion over fifth-placed RB Leipzig.
Stuttgart head into Sunday’s contest with hopes of claiming a third consecutive league win after beating Leipzig and Freiburg in their last two outings in the Bundesliga. They will certainly fancy their chances of picking up all three points, having won four of their last five home league matches (D1).
Team News
The hosts are expected to be without Dan-Axel Zagadou and Nikolas Nartey, while Hoeneß also has doubts over the availability of Alexander Nübel, Serhou Guirassy and Undav. Stuttgart are still unable to call upon Silas, who is on international duty with DR Congo.
Mainz 05
Mainz are languishing in the automatic relegation places after winning just one of their 20 league games this season (D9, L10). Since claiming that sole league win over Leipzig in November, Mainz have gone on to draw six and lose four of their last 10 top-flight matches.
After losing 1-0 to Werder Bremen last weekend, Jan Siewert's side had to settle for a point in Wednesday’s home clash with Union Berlin. Jonathan Burkardt opened the scoring, before his effort was quickly cancelled out by Robin Gosens, who scored what proved to be the final goal of the game.
Die Nullfünfer will head into Sunday’s contest with three points separating them from the relegation playoff spot, while they are nine points adrift of safety altogether. With Mainz facing a battle to retain their top-flight status, they will be desperate to claim their first away league win since beating Leipzig in April last year.
Team News
Mainz have no fresh injury concerns, but they remain without the services of Stefan Bell and Nelson Weiper.