“Hertha BSC vs VfB Stuttgart and Freiburg vs Leipzig: Bundesliga Matchday 31 Preview”

Hertha BSC welcomes VfB Stuttgart to the final for relegation. Leipzig are back in Freiburg and want to jump into a Champions League spot.

There are only four matchdays to play in the Bundesliga – and for Hertha BSC the noose is getting tighter and tighter.

The capital city is six points behind VfL Bochum on the relegation place. On Matchday 31, the old lady receives VfB Stuttgart for an absolute showdown in the relegation battle. Only a win helps Hertha in the fight to stay up.

Dardai no longer needs to achieve mathematical peak performances before the pre-decisive game. His calculation for saving the Berlin bottom of the table is simple: “Four games, four wins. A nice motto, and we will live by that for the time being.”

The guests from Swabia, on the other hand, also urgently need points to work their way out of the narrow table cellar. With around 6,000 VfB fans behind him, Sebastian Hoeneß wants to continue his streak as a VfB coach and come back with points in his luggage.

VfB have taken a whopping eight points from the last four Bundesliga games and haven’t lost a single game. Despite the setback midweek when VfB were eliminated by Frankfurt in the DFB Cup, Stuttgart travel to the capital with confidence. But Hertha have “repeatedly shown that they can be uncomfortable, especially at home,” warned Hoeneß on the matchday PK.

VfB will miss defender Konstantinos Mavropanos. The Greek injured his shin in the cup semifinals, coach Sebastian Hoeneß reported on Friday. Mavropanos will probably not only be on Saturday (3.30 p.m./Sky) in Berlin, but “probably” also fail against Bayer Leverkusen on May 14, Hoeneß added.

Hertha BSC: Christensen – Uremovic, Kempf, M. Dardai – Kenny, Tousart, Plattenhardt, Lukebakio, Jovetic, Richter – Niederlechner

VfB Stuttgart: Bredlow – Anton, Zagadou, Ito – Vagnoman, W. Endo, Haraguchi, Sosa, Millot, James Thomas – Guirassy

Things are also exciting in Breisgau. The sports club from Freiburg welcomes RB Leipzig again – a duel that caused a sensation during the week in the DFB Cup and in which Vincenzo Grifo initially sat on the bench. In the league, the dangerous midfielder is allowed to play again from the start.

“It would be even nicer if he wasn’t pissed off or terribly disappointed if he didn’t play,” said Freiburg coach Christian Streich before the game Sky. “We often talk to each other. Today he can show that it was wrong that he didn’t kick from the start.”

The Saxons clearly prevailed in the cup 5-1 in southern Baden, but the game was overshadowed by a coin toss at Leipzig striker André Silva. In the middle of the second half, the Portuguese got a 2-euro coin from the Freiburg fan block on his head, and then a few Ultras stormed the interior. As Freiburg announced on Friday, stadium bans were imposed on the perpetrators.

The encounter at the weekend is also explosive in terms of sport. Freiburg are four games before the end of the season, two points ahead of Saxony in fourth place and could make a significant leap towards the premier class with a win.

“We are in a sensational situation. We’re playing against Leipzig on the 31st matchday and we’re in front of them,” said the 57-year-old Streich: “It’s actually inexplicable that we’re in front of this team after 30 matchdays. Now Leipzig have to beat us first so that they can stand in front of us.”

The swatter in the cup semifinals on Wednesday has meanwhile been ticked off. “It’s relatively banal: too big a distance and poor duel behavior. Then the game is lost. We didn’t get into the duels.”

The league’s longest-serving coach explained that too many players were “in poor shape on the day”: “We would like to do better on Saturday under all circumstances. We’ve won a home game and the last three games in the Bundesliga.”

Leipzig, on the other hand, wants to overtake the home side with a win and climb to the coveted fourth place. “It’s going to be a different game. Freiburg will adjust a few things, the difficult away game remains,” said Rose.

Freiburg: Flekken – Kübler, Ginter, Gulde, Günter – Eggestein, Höfler, Weißhaupt, Grifo – Gregoritsch, Höler

Leipzig: Blaswich – Henrichs, Simakan, Orban, Halstenberg – Laimer, A. Haidara, Szoboszlai, Dani Olmo – Nkunku, Werner

live ticker: SPORT1.de and SPORT1 App

Borussia Monchengladbach – VfL Bochum

TSG Hoffenheim – Eintracht Frankfurt

FC Augsburg – Union Berlin

With Sports Information Service (SID)