With the World Cup qualifiers complete, attention turns back to club football this weekend and the first big clash in the top European leagues sees Stuttgart welcome Cologne to the Mercedes Benz Arena in the Bundesliga.
Both teams have been struggling near the bottom of the table and will hope to come back after the international fixtures with fresh optimism and ideas.
Stuttgart have won the Bundesliga five times, with their last success coming in 2006/07 and they unlikely to challenge for another title in this campaign. They start this match down in 14th place in the Bundesliga table, level on 7 points with Hamburg who currently occupy the relegation playoff place.
Trends show Stuttgart have won two of their seven Bundesliga games this season, with their last victory coming at home to Wolfsburg on the 16th September. Since then, Stuttgart have picked up just 1 point from three Bundesliga games.
There have been defeats at Borussia Monchengladbach and Eintracht Frankfurt and a draw at home with Augsburg.
However, home form has generally been good and Stuttgart have won two and drawn one of their three Bundesliga games at the Mercedes Benz Arena. Trends show that while Stuttgart have struggled to score goals at home, they have been very good defensively and have kept a clean sheet in all three matches.
While Stuttgart have been stuttering in recent games, Koln have barely got going at all this season and come into this match sitting bottom of the Bundesliga.
They have just 1 point from a possible 21 available and are currently 6 points adrift of safety, which is quite a significant margin this early in the campaign.
Trends show Koln have failed to win a game in the Bundesliga this season, with their only point coming courtesy of a 0-0 draw at Hannover a few weeks ago.
Koln have the worst defensive record in the Bundesliga, having conceded 15 goals in seven games and have been just as bad at the other end of the pitch, scoring just twice. They clearly need to improve at both ends of the team if they are to move off the bottom of the table.
Koln have won only one of their previous nine Bundesliga games and have failed to score a goal in four of their last five. However, they have won six of their last seven away matches against Stuttgart and will be hoping to add to that good record.
Stuttgart have doubts over several players going into this match including Holger Badstuber, Christian Gentner, Ailton Ferreira Silva, Anto Grgic, Emiliano Insua and Carlos Mane.
Koln will be without the injured trio of Jonas Hector, Nikolas Nartey and Jhon Cordoba. Goalkeeper Timo Horn is looking to recover from a hip injury in time for the game.
Stuttgart have been good at home this season and defensively they have been solid. Koln have struggled for goals and could find it tough to break down the Stuttgart defensive. This match looks like being a narrow home victory to nil, with under 2.5 goals scored.