1.FC Köln - Greuther Fürth

Cologne to walk all over Greuther Furth with home win

TEAM NEWS

Nikolas Nartey, Christian Clemens, Jonas Hector, Jannes Horn and Lasse Sobiech remain sidelined for Cologne. 

Greuther Furth's Yosuke Ideguchi, Daniel Steininger and Maximilian Wittek won't feature because of injury.

Cologne

Suspended: None

Doubtful: None

Injured/unavailable: Nikolas Nartey (foot), Christian Clemens (ligament rupture), Lasse Sobiech (broken toe); Jonas Hector, Jannes Horn (both knee)

Greuther Furth

Suspended: None

Doubtful: None

Injured/unavailable: Yosuke Ideguchi, Daniel Steininger (both knee); Maximilian Wittek (eye)

MATCH PREVIEW

MAIN PREDICTION: HOME WIN

Cologne claimed an important 3-0 win away from home against Darmstadt last weekend. It was their second victory in a row after thrashing Dresden comprehensively 8-1 at home in their previous league outing. Markus Anfang's men have now lost only once in the past five league fixtures, drawing twice and winning twice. With other results going their way in the last round, they have moved three points clear of third placed Union Berlin and are only one point behind leaders Hamburg.

Greuther Furth have made a solid start to their league campaign, winning six, drawing five and losing just three of their first 14 league matches to sit in sixth. Greuther Furth beat bottom-side Magdeburg 3-2 at Sportpark Ronhof last weekend with the winning goal arriving in injury time. In fact, they were lucky not to lose as they managed to score the last two goals in the final five minutes. Damir Buric’s men have picked up slightly more points on home soil (13) than on their travels (ten) this term and have lost the last two on the road, failing to score against both Darmstadt and Union Berlin.

Cologne have been on fire lately and their good recent form backs them up. I'm going with a home win. 

SECOND PREDICTION: HILO – HIGH

Both of Cologne’s last two league matches have been high-scoring affairs as have Greuther Furth's last three. I’m predicting there to be plenty of total goals in this one too.

HEAD TO HEAD

The teams have not met since 2013-14 when both league encounters ended level.