After Borussia Dortmund saw its Bundesliga title hopes seemingly end with defeat to Bayern Munich in the Klassiker, Lucien Favre's side could slide to third place on Wednesday.
A victory for RB Leipzig over Hertha Berlin would take Julian Nagelsmann's team up to second spot in the table.
There are some growing winless runs in the German top flight, with worrying times for the likes of Union Berlin and Hoffenheim.
Alarm bells will be ringing at Schalke, however, if its fruitless streak stretches to 10 games. David Wagner's side tackles third-bottom Fortuna Dusseldorf.
RB LEIPZIG V HERTHA BERLIN
- Leipzig usually enjoys this fixture, having won six of its previous seven Bundesliga matches against Hertha – losing the other 3-2 at home in December 2017. It has won more Bundesliga games against Hertha than against any other side, and have scored 26 goals in those seven previous clashes.
- Leipzig has taken 54 points from 27 matches this Bundesliga season, just shy of the 55 it had at this stage of its debut top-flight campaign in 2016-17.
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- Striker Timo Werner has had a hand in 31 Bundesliga goals for Leipzig this season, with 24 goals and seven assists, including a hat-trick against Mainz at the weekend. Since detailed data collection began in 2004-05, no other player has been involved in as many goals at this stage of a season.
- Hertha has been rejuvenated under new boss Bruno Labbadia, with a 3-0 win over Hoffenheim followed by a 4-0 victory against city rival Union Berlin last Friday. Curiously, every goal in those two games came between the 51st and 77th minutes.
UNION BERLIN V MAINZ
- Mainz parted company with head coach Sandro Schwarz after losing 3-2 when these two teams met in November. It was just Union's second win in seven competitive matches against Mainz.
- Union sits 13th in the Bundesliga but has not won in its past four Bundesliga matches, losing its past three, including a 4-0 derby loss to Hertha. It is its longest winless run in the Bundesliga, albeit this is its first season in the league.
- Mainz must set aside its latest Leipzig humiliation. Its 5-0 loss at the weekend followed an 8-0 defeat to the same opposition earlier in the season. The last Bundesliga team to concede 13 goals in a single season against one team was Ulm in 1999-2000 against Bayer Leverkusen.
- Mainz sits 15th and has conceded a league-high 60 goals this season, more than in any previous season in its existence.
AUGSBURG V PADERBORN
- Augsburg has won four of its past six competitive matches against Paderborn (D1 L1), including a 1-0 success earlier this season when Philipp Max's goal made the difference.
- A 3-0 win at Schalke last time out ended Augsburg's run of four Bundesliga defeats in a row and gave it a first clean sheet in 2020.
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- Augsburg has a rocky recent record at home against promoted teams, winning five and losing five of its past 10 such fixtures. The last promoted team it beat at home was Paderborn – 3-0 in November 2014.
- Paderborn sits bottom of the Bundesliga with 18 points from 27 matches. No team with 18 points or fewer at this stage of a season has ever avoided relegation from the league.
HOFFENHEIM V COLOGNE
- Rather a favourite fixture for Hoffenheim, it has won each of its past three Bundesliga games against Cologne and is unbeaten in the past seven in their rivalry. It has only managed to string together a longer sequence of Bundesliga wins against one team – winning five in succession against Hannover from 2013 to 2015.
- Hoffenheim will need to buck the trend of its recent 2019-20 season results, however, having not won in its past seven Bundesliga matches (D3 L4), its longest winless run since going eight games without a victory from October to December in 2015.
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- Cologne's Jhon Cordoba scored his 11th goal of the season on matchday 27, a late equaliser against Fortuna Dusseldorf on Sunday. He has now netted more goals in his 23 appearances this term than in his previous three Bundesliga campaigns combined (10 goals in 69 games).
FORTUNA DUSSELDORF V SCHALKE
- Schalke has lost only one of its past six competitive matches against Fortuna (W3 D2), but that 4-0 home setback in March 2019 will be fresh in the memory.
- Fortuna sits precariously in 16th place but is unbeaten in its past five games (W1 D4) under Uwe Rosler. It has drawn six of eight games under Rosler – the only other coach in Bundesliga history to draw six of his first eight matches was Thorsten Fink with Hamburg in 2011.
- If Fortuna goes ahead, it might not stay the same, having thrown away a league-high 22 points from winning positions this season. However, it faces a slumping Schalke side, which has gone nine games without a Bundesliga win, scoring just twice in that dismal run.
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