Hamburg will be looking to restore some daylight between themselves and the bottom three when they host high-flying Eintracht Frankfurt on Tuesday evening (kick-off 20:30CET/19:30GMT) after being sucked towards danger at the weekend.
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Markus Gisdol's men risk dropping into the bottom three for the first time this season if they fail to get the better of Frankfurt and the head coach may therefore consider a more attack-minded team for this home game. Andre Hahn is an option to replace Jann-Fiete Arp, who could be afforded a rest after starting the northern Germany side's last five, and failing to score in the past four.
Makoto Hasebe is set to return after missing the defeat to Bayern at the weekend due to illness. He should replace Fernandes, while it will be a toss-up between Mijat Gacinovic and Aymen Barkok, who made his first start of the season against Bayern, but was unable to make an impression, to complete the attacking block behind Sebastien Haller. USA defender Timothy Chandler is back in training, and coach Niko Kovac believes he will make an appearance before the winter break. Frankfurt have the top six still in their sights as they look to build on the second-best away record in the Bundesliga this season, behind Bayern (15 points from eight games).
Watch: Could Jann-Fiete Arp be November's Rookie of the Month?
Probable line-ups
Hamburg: Mathenia - Diekmeier, Papadopoulos (c), Mavraj, Douglas Santos – Jung, Walace – Ito, Hunt, Kostic – Hahn
Absentees: Müller (knee), Wood (knee), Thoelke (knee), Salihovic (illness)
Coach: Markus Gisdol
Frankfurt: Hradecky – Salcedo, Abraham (c), Falette – Wolf, Boateng, Hasebe, Willems – Gacinovic – Rebic, Haller
Absentees: Meier (ankle), Fabian (back), Mascarell (Achilles), Mbouhom (knee), De Guzman (shoulder)
Coach: Niko Kovac
Match stats
After Bayern Munich (16 points), Frankfurt have the second-best record of all clubs away from home this season (15).Hamburg are enjoying their longest unbeaten run of the campaign so far (three matches).Hamburg have picked up 11 of their 15 points at the Volksparkstadion.For the first time under Markus Gisdol, HSV have kept three clean sheets on the bounce. They have not kept four clean sheets in a row in over ten years.Both Hamburg’s last two games ended goalless. They have never registered three consecutive 0-0 draws in the Bundesliga.Frankfurt are unbeaten in their last ten games against Hamburg, who have failed to score against Eintracht in the teams’ last four meetings.
Source: bundesliga.com