One of the Bundesliga’s surprise packages will take on one of the league’s most struggling sides as Hoffenheim play hosts to Borussia Monchengladbach this weekend as the home side look to break into the top four with Gladbach near relegation.
Since Marco Rose departed for Borussia Dortmund, his former side have been in absolute disarray and are now facing a long fight this season to get away from the drop zone as they currently sit just a single point above it ahead of this clash.
The club, more worryingly, have managed to concede a whopping 31 goals in the league so far, which is the third-worst in league and only Greuther Gurth with 49 and Hertha Berlin with 33 have more. To put in perspective, Armina Bielefeld have only conceded 22 and they are only on 13 points.
To make matters even worse than this disastrous record, the club have now conceded an astonishing 17 goals in their past four games and scored only five.
Indeed, this isn't the worst goalscoring record, but it has been the worst defensive performance by any side from Europe's top five leagues since December began.
Although Gladbach will be backed to stay up based on Adi Hutter’s previous record and their own history as a club, but in reality, they remain a point off Augsburg, and given their inferior goal difference, a defeat to Hoffenheim here and they will be in the relegation zone if other results go against them.
As for Hoffenheim, it’s been an absolutely sensational season for them considering they finished 11th last time out and now sit with a serious chance of being in the top four as we head into 2022.
The club are currently fourth, a point behind third-placed Bayer Leverkusen and a point behind fifth-placed Freiburg, who themselves are overachieving.
Furthermore, the high-flying fourth-placed outfit have won 50% of their games, something only Dortmund and champions Bayern Munich can do better. However, it's their incredible goal record that stand them ahead of sides like Freiburg, Mainz and Eintracht Frankfurt in this tense top four battle.
Indeed, Hoffenheim have bagged 34 league goals - something on the top three can better - and following a positive draw with Leverkusen last time out and a win over Freiburg before that, they are now being backed to achieve top four status in the eyes of many.
Forebet predicts they will win comfortably here in a game that will see over 2.5 goals.