Leverkusen managed to neutralise the minimum first half lead of Cottbus and in the last minutes provide a victory. The man of the game was definitely Rolfs who score the neutralizer and then the winning goal.

Coach Skibbe decided to field a more careful line-up in 4-2-3-1 form which is kind of logical having in mind that Leverkusen leapfrogged Hamburger in the last round. The home fans will be rejoiced by the news that captain Schneider is recovered and back in the team. Last two championship duels with Hamburger Factory Squad lost at home and everyone in the club hopes that the negative streak could be ended this weekend. The fact that Castro is suspended, Sarpei absent and Haggui, Ramelov and Domaschker absent certainly doesn’t favour them.
Hamburger will play in best 32 game in UEFA Cup by the middle of the week when they will cross swords with FC Zurich. In the last round Hamburger managed to fight a draw at home against much better Hannover.

Coach Stevens will field Reinhardt in the back line instead of Kompany, who will be moved to the midfield. When it comes to Stevens he doesn’t back out on his 4-2-3-1 form so this time too Hamburger will play with only one forward. This will most likely be Olic who was the only one to score a goal in the last round and once again showed that this is one of his best seasons since he already managed to score eight times. Dutch tandem van Der Vaart and De Jong will be in charge of the midfield while Demel and Boateng will take care of defense. Zidan and Atouba won’t be able to support their team since they are in the African Cup as well as Sorin and Castalen who are injured.