Stuttgart picked up their first win of the season at the second time of asking, but now face a tougher challenge as they play host to Bayer Leverkusen.
Leverkusen, however, are still yet to claim their first victory of the campaign, having been held in both of their first two encounters, but may feel confident of taking all three points in their clash with newly-promoted Stuttgart.
Match preview
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Newly-promoted Stuttgart opened their Bundesliga campaign with a 3-2 defeat at home to Freiburg, going 3-0 down before mounting a late - and ultimately unsuccessful - comeback.
However, they bounced back in style in their second outing, beating Mainz by an emphatic 4-1 scoreline in a hectic game that featured a red card for each side.
The scoreline may have flattered Stuttgart somewhat, though, given the score was 2-1 when Mainz were reduced to 10 men, while Stuttgart's red card came in stoppage time.
Despite that, it is an encouraging three points as Pellegrino Matarazzo's side look ahead to the visit of Leverkusen.
Leverkusen finished fifth last season, boasting the fifth-best attacking and defensive records in the division, and proved themselves a solid side.
However, they have been held to draws in each of their last two league games against Wolfsburg and RB Leipzig, respectively, scoring just once in the process.
Perhaps the departures of last season's top scorer - Kai Havertz - and second-highest scorer - Kevin Volland - have blunted them in the attacking third, with new signing Patrik Schick yet to find his first league goal.
Head coach Peter Bosz will have to address his side's attacking issues swiftly, or risk regressing from last season and slipping out of the European places.
Stuttgart Bundesliga form: LW
Stuttgart form (all competitions): WLW
Bayer Leverkusen Bundesliga form: DD
Bayer Leverkusen form (all competitions): WDD
Team News
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Stuttgart manager Matarazzo finds himself in the middle of a selection crisis, with seven players unavailable for the visit of Leverkusen on Saturday.
Philipp Forster, Nicolas Gonzalez, Lilian Egloff, Konstantinos Mavropanos and Clinton Mola are all out, but are expected to return this month.
Maxime Awoudja, however, is not likely to return until December, while Pascal Stenzel is suspended after his late sending-off against Mainz.
Leverkusen head coach Bosz, on the other hand, has just one long-term injury to deal with.
Young Brazilian winger Paulinho is still recovering from an ACL injury and is projected to return in February next year, but will likely be eased in slowly from that point.
Stuttgart possible starting lineup:
Kobel; Kempf, Anton, Kaminski; Endo; Wamangituka, Sosa, Mangala, Castro; Didavi, Kalajdzic
Bayer Leverkusen possible starting lineup:
Hradecky; L. Bender, S. Bender, Tapsoba, Sinkgraven; Aranguiz; Bellarabi, Wirtz, Demirbay, Diaby; Schick
We say: Stuttgart 0-1 Bayer Leverkusen
Leverkusen should have enough quality to edge past their newly-promoted opponents, but given their lack of cutting edge in the final third lately, it could be a low-scoring win.
Top betting tip
Our expert tipster partners at Sporita.com are predicting that both teams will score (BTTS - yes) in this match. Click here to find out what else they are predicting for this game and for more of their tried-and-tested football tips.BTTS Yes:dataData Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Bayer Leverkusen win with a probability of 44.47%. A win for Stuttgart had a probability of 32.29% and a draw had a probability of 23.2%.
The most likely scoreline for a Bayer Leverkusen win was 1-2 with a probability of 9.03%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 0-1 (7.18%) and 0-2 (6.23%). The likeliest Stuttgart win was 2-1 (7.55%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (10.4%). The actual scoreline of 1-1 was predicted with a 10.4% likelihood.
