Bremen – Mönchengladbach
Gladbach has virtually almost nothing left to play for this season. On current form and considering Schalke’s current form, third place is seemingly unreachable. They are tucked comfortable in the fourth and final Champions League spot, nine points ahead of Stuttgart. They drew on Saturday against Hertha at Borussia Park, a match they were expected to win.
Bremen occupies the final European spot. They escaped with a 1-1 draw against Köln last week. Bremen will come into the match looking to avenge the thumping that Gladbach gave them earlier in the season. 5-0 is a score-line which simply cannot be forgotten easily. Also, Bremen has to look behind them- Wolfsburg and Hannover will be looking to take over seventh place.
Prediction: Bremen 1-0 Mönchengladbach
Bayer Leverkusen – Kaiserslautern
Kaiserslautern is all but doomed. They are ten points away from safety with just five matches to go. While they haven’t necessarily been leaky under Krassimir Balakov, they have failed to find the net often enough to earn wins or even draws. Last weekend, they lost 1-2 to Hoffenheim. Alexander Bugera’s goal came far too late in the match for FCK to salvage a point.
Leverkusen started life under Sámi Hyppia and Sascha Lewandowski with a 1-1 draw against HSV. Mladen Petric’s first half penalty was cancelled out by a goal from Andre Schuerrle in the second half. Leverkusen had been fifth for most of the season. They currently sit sixth in the table tied with the two teams behind them, Bremen and Hannover.
Prediction: Leverkusen 1-0 Kaiserslautern
Nürnberg – Schalke 04
Schalke absolutely demolished Hannover 96 3-0. Raul notched two goals with the second being a thing of beauty. Klaas Jan Huntelaar kept up his chase on Mario Gomez for the Bundesliga cannon by scoring the third. Schalke is seemingly destined for a return to the Champions League. They are holding on to third place tightly and provided other results go their way, might even be able to finish second.
Nürnberg allowed a two goal lead to slip against Freiburg. In the first half, they scored through Daniel Didavi and Tomas Peckhart. In the second half Freiburg scored through Daniel Caligiuri and Cedric Makiadi to grab a point. Dieter Hecking though did not have any complaints against his side at the end of the match and felt that the draw was a fair result.
Prediction: Nürnberg 1-2 Schalke
