By Rich Murray
Eintracht Frankfurt and Borussia Mönchengladbach played a scoreless tie on Friday. The draw means that Gladbach are still unbeaten at home this season, and the point for each team gave each a boost in the table. Frankfurt is now momentarily in 6th place going into Saturday’s matches, and Gladbach just 3 points behind them in 8th place. The big match this weekend is the 89th Bundesliga Revierderby featuring visiting FC Schalke 04 against hosts Borussia Dortmund. The last meeting between the two teams occurred was back on April 10th and resulted in a 2:2 draw, and Dortmund have lost only 1 of the last 6 derbies. Schalke has been struggling this season, but have improved their record more recently and crawled out of the relegation zone. Dortmund has struggled less, but is only in 7th place in the league and trails league-leading Bayern by 5 points. Hoffenheim suffered its first competitive defeat this season in a DFB Cup match earlier this week against 1. FC Köln, and will be looking to extend its Bundesliga unbeaten streak on Sunday against Hertha. Only 1 point separates the two clubs near the top of the table. According to Hoffenheim defender Niklas Süle, Hoffenheim dominated the match but failed to convert their dominance into goals, and will have to play the same way on Sunday to move past Hertha in the standings. Hertha’s Vedad Ibisevic, meanwhile, is one of the league’s top scorers this season and is only 2 goals behind league leader Anthony Modeste. Another derby will take place earlier on Saturday, when Augsburg hosts nearby Bayern München. The two teams already met once this week for the DFB Cup, and Bayern handily defeated Gladbach last weekend, in one of the most polished performances yet under new coach Carlo Ancelotti. Ancelotti rested both Douglas Costa and Arjen Robben during the midweek match, but both are eager to return to play on Saturday. Finally, look for Bundesliga debutantes RB Leipzig to continue their undefeated streak when they travel to Darmstadt. Darmstadt has lost 4 of their 8 matches this season and will look to stay out of the relegation zone.
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