Köln vs Bochum preview: Köln to face relegation with a loss
Köln take on Bochum at the RheinEnergieStadion on Saturday afternoon. A loss for the hosts means they would be staring down the barrel of relegation. Bochum need to avoid losing to steer clear of the bottom three.
Köln
For Köln, it was a change defensively last week that meant they kept at least a point away from home at Augsburg in the Bundesliga.
Jan Thielmann, who came in for Rasmus Carstensen, played as a right-back following success in this position at the Germany under-21s. His goal line clearance in the second half meant Köln finished the game at 1-1.
Davie Selke got back on the scoresheet again last week against Augsburg thanks to a quick attacking move fuelled by Köln's resurging Sargis Adamyan.
Selke is Köln's top scorer this season with six goals in the Bundesliga. The only player in the bottom three to have scored more goals than him is Darmstadt's Tim Skarke with eight.
Ahead of the game against Bochum, coach Timo Schultz said: " It will be a match of equals but we have the chance to take a big step in the right direction so of course we want to win."
Team news
Mark Uth and Florian Dietz are both unavailable and were in individual training at the Geissbockheim on Wednesday. Both did some light running and work on smaller goals in midweek. Luca Kilian is also injured long-term so will miss the tie. Justin Diehl is also still unavailable.
During Wednesday's training, Davie Selke left after fourty-five minutes as a precaution to manage his training load. Timo Schultz, however, has reassured everyone that he will play on Saturday.
Bochum
Bochum also have a must-win game this Saturday against their opponents seeing as they only managed to draw to Darmstadt last week despite leading 2-0.
Phillipp Hofmann got both goals in the game at the Ruhrstadion. However, at home against bottom in the Bundesliga, it feels as if a draw was not enough.
Bochum have struggled the entire season to win against the sides in the bottom three. They have drawn against all three clubs: Mainz, Darmstadt and Köln and even lost to Mainz just two weeks ago.
Out of all teams in the Bundesliga, Bochum are bottom in terms of the form table as they have only one point in the last five games.
In spite of this, Bochum are still in a very good position in terms of avoiding relegation. They are six points off Mainz in 16th and seven points off Köln in 17th. This would become four points if they were to lose.
Team news
Michael Esser is out for Bochum with a knee injury and so is Niclas Thiede. Mohammed Tolba is out with a knee injury as well and Timo Oermann is a doubt.