Energie Cottbus - 1.FC Köln

As always on monday evening, the last match in 2.Bundesliga to close the Round. Energie Cottbus and 1.FC Cologne face each other for an important one according to table situation. Because in 2.BL table everything is still close at the moment, both teams have the chance with a win to jump upwards. Home team from Cottbus will climb from Position 13 upt to third place with a win while Cologne also is in a good position only with a draw they are on third Place and with a win they are very close to the leader duo Union Berlin and Greuther Fürth. They can reduce the gap to just one Point and this should be motivation enough to be back in promotion race after an average start.

Cottbus is aiming for their third home win in third match but no one expects such clear results as in their past two home matches vs. Paderborn 4-0 or VfR Aalen 5-1 but hope for a narrow win is still there. This is also because with Top Scorer Boubacar Sanogo they miss again their best Scorer suspended, what the offensive force of Coach Bommer’s team certainly slows down. Therefore Bommer can field the same offensive line as he did already against Kaiserslautern where they got a 2-2 draw, although they were over 60 minutes with one man more on the pitch but could not take advantage of it. This means that Jendrisek accrues as the lone striker while he gets supported from three offensive midfield players. The guys on the wings are maybe Stiepermann who is current in absolutely great shape while on the other side Susic could not convince much vs. Lautern and also he is struggling with some calf problems what may come to a change again here. Coach Bommer looking for it anyway, probably candidates are Takyi or also Bickel can hope for a place in starting lineup. Meanwhile will return from suspension left back Bitroff and should replace Svab there. All other positions are normally clear.

After Colognes transfer coup with Helmes all awaits his comeback in shirt of FC. The former national player played five years for Leverkusen and Wolfsburg after returning to his old club. After some statements from Coach Stöger will he be in starting lineup immediately and build with Ujah together the striker duo. Therefore one player must on bench although the team convinced for the first time against Aue 4-1 in their last match. Maybe hard decision to be made here for Coach Stöger but he wants not to miss the quality from Helmes up front. According to the past lineup he must pick one of the offensive players like Risse, Halfar or Peszko otherwise they are to offensive minded if he takes out Gerhardt from central midfield. But which player, all of these three made an excellent match against Aue and it can be a very tricky task. No one expect four goals man Risse on the bench, therefore it can only be Halfar or Peszko who is out of the lineup. Peszko seems to be the better choice on the left wing and feels more comfortable there what makes it difficult for Halfar to start. But if he is on bench and comes in in second half he can bring some fresh breeze in their play. However, on defense line there will be no changes anyway.