Leipzig seeking first Bundesliga win in trip to Hertha after back-to-back defeats.

2024-09-23

Hertha BSC will look to halt their winless streak and steer clear of relegation danger when they face off against RB Leipzig, who are keen to rebound from back-to-back Bundesliga defeats, in a crucial showdown at Red Bull Arena this Saturday.

Hertha BSC

Relegation-threatened Hertha are without a win in four games, WLDLD, following last weekend's 1-1 draw with SC Freiburg at the Europa-Park Stadion. The home side has 22 points [5W, 7D, 14L] heading into the weekend while hoping to break the four-game winless run.

Hertha sits one point above the bottom two in 16th place, but a win here could see them pull further away from the troubled end of the table. With a tally of 22 points after 26 games, Hertha BSC have only ever been worse off at this stage in their relegation campaigns of 2009-10 (15 points) and 1990-91 (13 points).

However, Hertha will look to draw inspiration from their home form when they meet Leipzig this weekend. The Berliners have won two of their last three home games [2W, 1D, 0L] and have picked up 15 of their last 16 points on home turf following the draw against SC Freiburg last weekend.

Head coach Sandro Schwarz is poised to line up a 3-5-2 with Wilfried Kanga and Dodi Lukébakio in attack against Leipzig on Saturday. Meanwhile, Schwarz could be without as many as three players, including Kelian Nsona.

RB Leipzig

RB Leipzig sent Dortmund packing from the DFB-Pokal on Wednesday night after a 2-0 quarterfinal win over the Black and Yellows. Timo Werner struck midway through the first half to put the Red Bulls in the lead before Willi Orbán put the game to bed deep inside stoppage time.

Last weekend, Leipzig suffered back-to-back Bundesliga defeats after a 3-0 loss to Mainz. It was the first time Leipzig lost consecutive Bundesliga games this season, equaling the number of defeats they had in their previous 17 matches.

The visitors are in 5th place with 45 points from 13 wins, 6 draws, and 7 losses heading into this fixture against Hertha. However, they have won 11 of their 13 Bundesliga games against the home side, more than against any other team.

A win here could see Leipzig leapfrog fourth-placed Freiburg. Freiburg face a difficult second episode in their double-header against Bayern Munich after sending the German champions crashing out of the DFB-Pokal on Tuesday night.

Meanwhile, Marco Rose is poised to line up a 4-2-3-1 with Andre Silva at the top of the shape. Xaver Schlager and Péter Gulácsi are both ruled out.