Fortuna Düsseldorf - 1.FC Köln

At the end of a very tumultuous year stands for Fortuna Düsseldorf with the „Rhein-Derby“ against 1.FC Köln once again a highlight of the program. As both teams faced each other on Matchday two all are expecting Fortuna Düsseldorf as one of the promotion contenders above all they domintated this match very well and it was only due to their waste of chances that they lead not higher as 1-0. In second half Cologne was much better and improved a lot and got a 1-1 draw in the end. But after a few month later things have been much different, Düsseldorf fights to get out of the bottom zone while Cologne stands on top of the table and can with a win open the gap more and more to the other teams. Nevertheless it is a big match and after Düsseldorf fired Coach Büskens and announced Reck as interim coach they are on a clear uptrend now. Both last matches where Reck stands on the sideline were won. Both matches were very important otherwise they would have been involved huge in relegation battle. Overall a hard and big match is expected as both are not very familiar.

In Düsseldorf has interim Coach Reck not many reasons to chance his successful starting eleven from recent matches. May, in the case of a derby success it is expected that he gets promoted to the head Coach of Fortuna. With three wins in a row should all arguments on his side and this is was count. Therefore he works with huge dedication. Compared to the 3-1 win in Cottbus where Oliver Fink was suspended but played really good in Kaiserslautern by the win of them two weeks ago should be back in the starting lineup again. This means that the youngster Gartner is out of the starting lineup after his debut in Cottbus. In attack all hopes are on Benschop and Hoffer, both did the job in recent matches and they are always able to get dangerous.

Cologne Coach Stöger is probably also rebuilt his starting lineup against the 3-1 win against Dresden on one position. So it is likely that top player Risse moves into the team who was only substitute against Dresden due to illness. Peszko is the first who is out for him. Alternative to the last practiced 4-4-2 but would also be 4-2-3-1 with Peszko and Risse in offenisve and Daniel Halfar in the center behind Helmes are possible too. In this case Ujah would be only on bench then. The only problems they have at the moment is with defender Wimmer who has light muscle problems and is a doubt but the austrian should be ready to the match. So no worries on Cologne side for a big derby.

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