SV Darmstadt 98 and Borussia Monchengladbach will be looking to put their rough start to the 2023-24 Bundesliga season behind them when they lock horns at Merck-Stadion am Bollenfalltor on Sunday.

The hosts are on a run of three consecutive league defeats ahead of this weekend's encounter, while the visitors are yet to pick up a win from their opening three matches.

Match preview

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Borussia Monchengladbach fell to a 1-0 defeat against Werder Bremen in Thursday's friendly meeting between the teams at the Borussia Park.

Gerardo Seoane's men conceded a late opener to Justin Njinmah five minutes from time, which turned out to be the all-important moment in a drab affair.

Prior to that, Die Fohlen suffered an agonising 2-1 loss against defending champions Bayern Munich and have now slipped down to 16th in the Bundesliga table.

Up next is the challenge of an opposing outfit who have only managed to secure one win in normal time from the previous seven editions of this fixture.

However, that solitary win did come in the most recent matchup back in October when Sunday's hosts were dumped out of the DFB-Pokal following a 2-1 defeat.

Darmstadt came away empty-handed from the third game running as they received a 5-1 thrashing from Bayer Leverkusen at the BayArena on September 2.

Torsten Lieberknecht's men trailed to Victor Boniface's opener but managed to hit back through Oscar Vilhelmsson before second-half goals from Exequiel Palacios, Boniface, Jonas Hofmann and Adam Hlozek decided the contest.

Currently the only team in the German top-flight yet to pick up a point this term, Die Lilien currently sit bottom of the standings, albeit just one point adrift of safety.

Having lost three of their last four home matches, Sunday's hosts will need to get going in front of their fans if they turn their season around.

Team News

German trio Alexander Brunst, Fabian Nurnberger and Christoph Zimmermann are all unavailable for Darmstadt through shoulder, foot and back injuries respectively.

The home side will also be without the services of Mathias Honsak as he continues to nurse a torn muscle, while Fraser Hornsby misses out through a hip problem.

Kouadio Kone remains without an appearance for Monchengladbach this season due to a knee injury he picked up while on international duty with the France Under-21s.

Joe Scally has missed consecutive games for club and country through a slight knock, but the defender is expected to be in contention to feature here.

Twenty-one-year-old Jan Olschowsky recently made his return to action last time out and will be pushing for a place in the starting lineup here.

SV Darmstadt 98 possible starting lineup:
Schuhen; Isherwood, Maglica, Klarer; Karic, Franjic, Bader; Holland, Mehlem; Vilhelmsson, Pfeiffer

Borussia Monchengladbach possible starting lineup:
Nicolas; Scally, Friedrich, Itakura, Wober; Reitz, Weigl, Neuhaus; Plea, Cvancara, Ngoumou

We say: SV Darmstadt 98 1-2 Borussia Monchengladbach

This weekend's opponents currently lead the way in terms of goals conceded and we are expecting goals at both ends in this one. That said, we just about fancy the away side to come out on top.


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