Bundesliga preview: Dortmund welcome strugglers

Fresh from their 3-1 triumph over Bayer Leverkusen, Juergen Klopp’s Borussia Dortmund host lowly Stuttgart in the Bundesliga on Saturday.

Dortmund defeated fellow high-flyers Bayer Leverkusen 3-1 on Friday to go 12 points clear at the top of the league standings, and Klopp’s men will be eager to continue their sterling domestic form against a Stuttgart side looking to skip clear of the relegation zone.

Also on Saturday, second-place Hannover host Schalke, while third-place Mainz welcome Steve McClaren’s lowly Wolfsburg side who are just two points clear of the bottom three and have drawn their past seven Bundesliga fixtures.

Reigning champions Bayern Munich, who are in fifth place and have lost just one of their last 11 league games, play Kaiserslautern.

Bayern will be without injured winger Franck Ribery, although Dutch ace Arjen Robben continues his return after playing his first match since the World Cup final in their 1-1 draw with Wolfsburg over the weekend.

Elsewhere, seventh play eighth when Hamburg welcome Eintracht Frankfurt to the Imtech Arena on Friday.

Hamburg will be hoping for more goals from veteran Dutch forward Ruud van Nistelrooy, whose lone strike helped them to a 1-0 win over Schalke last time out, while Frankfurt will look for a sturdy response following their 3-0 loss away to Hannover.

Cologne continue their relegation dogfight with a home fixture against 13th-place Werder Bremen, while Nuremberg travel to the badenova-Stadion to do battle with Freiburg.

On Sunday, Borussia Monchengladbach will have their work cut out for them if they are to lift themselves off the bottom of the Bundesliga when they clash with Bayer Leverkusen.

Leverkusen will be bolstered by the return to action of Germany captain Michael Ballack, who was an unused substitute in the Dortmund match after a long absence because of a fractured shinbone.

In Sunday’s late game, St Pauli travel to Hoffenheim.