FC Koln have endured a trying return to the Bundesliga as they have lost three of their first four 2019/20 games.
The Billy Goats will next face the wrath of Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena on Saturday afternoon and the general consensus will feel it will in the end result into a fourth loss for the visitors.
Achim Beierlorzer’s side who have already lost to Wolfsburg, Dortmund and Monchengladbach will be without the duo of Birger Verstraete and Christian Clemens.
Coming up against a side that they have not beaten away from home since February 2009 may be a huge ask and it is fair to say that Koln should wait till next week to search for a second victory on their latest return to the top-tier.
Bayern on the other hand are still unbeaten this season and start the day just two points of the summit of the Bundesliga.
In their six competitive fixtures so far, Nico Kovac’s side has won four and drawn the other two including their latest league fixtures-1-1 away to leaders RB Leipzig.
A 3-0 victory at home to Red Star Belgrade provided the perfect momentum for the visit of Koln and with striker Robert Lewandowski firing on all cylinders; three points will be Bayern’s priority on Saturday.
They will however have to do it minus David Alaba and Leon Goretzka who are both out injured.
The last meeting between the two sides at the Allianz Arena ended in a 1-0 victory for Bayern with Lewandowski scoring the winner at the hour-mark.
As Bayern hosts Koln, rivals Dortmund will be away to Eintracht Frankfurt on Sunday afternoon.
Dortmund are coming off a spirited 0-0 draw with Barcelona in the champions league, a game that saw captain Marco Reus miss from the spot.
Their last league game was a 4-0 home victory against Leverkusen, their third win of the season having defeated Koln and Augsburg earlier.
Sitting just a point behind leader Leipzig, Dortmund will be hoping to get all three points and hopefully end match-day 5 on top of the standings.
Lukasz Piszczek, Nico Schulz and Spaniard Mate Morey are still nursing injuries and are all not expected to feature in the game for Lucien Favre’s side.
Frankfurt on the other hand will be hoping to bounce back two successive defeats. A 2-1 loss at Augsburg was followed up with a disappointing 3-0 defeat at home to Arsenal in the Europa League on Wednesday.
Adi Hutter’s side are usually strong at home and have gone on to win both of their opening two Bundesliga games at the Commerzbank Arena. They have so far beaten Hoffenheim 1-0 and Dusseldorf 2-1 and will surely pose serious questions to Dortmund’s title aspirations.
Last season, the two side drew 1-1 in the reverse fixture with both goals coming in the first 26 minutes as Reus opened the scoring before Luka Jovi leveled matters.
Top of the table Leipzig will be hoping to continue their fine start to the campaign when travel away to Bremen on Saturday night.
Leipzig have won five of their six games in all competitions since the season started and they head into the encounter off a 2-1 victory away to Benfica in the Champions League.
In-form striker Timo Warner scored both goals in Lisbon and will be hoping to add onto his 5 he has so far scored in the Bundesliga. Leipzig will however miss the services of Konrad Laimer, Hannes Wolf, Tyler Adams, Patrik Schick and Kevin Kampl who are all still injured.
Bremen who are still without up to 12 first team players including the suspended Nuri Sahin will be out to register a third league successive win.
Last week, Florian Kohfeldt’s side scrapped to a 2-1 win at Union Berlin, following a 3-2 victory at home to Augsburg on match-day three.
The reverse fixture last campaign saw Bremen defeat Leipzig 2-1 with Claudio Pizzaro scoring the winner two minutes from time.
The German Bundesliga match-day 5 gets underway on Friday with Schalke 04 at home to Mainz 05.
Both sides are coming off victories in their respective last fixtures with Schalke beating Paderborn 5-1 away from home while Mainz defeated Hertha Berlin 2-1.
Last season, Schalke won the reverse fixture 1-0.
All Bundesliga match-day 5 fixtures
Friday, 20-09-2019
-Schalke 04 vs Mainz 05 @9:30pm
Saturday, 21-09-2019
-Bayern Munich vs Koln @4:30pm
-Bayer Leverkusen vs Union Berlin @4:30pm
Hertha Berlin vs Paderborn @4:30pm
-Freiburg vs Augsburg @4:30pm
-Werder Bremen vs RB Leipzig @7:30pm
Sunday, 22-09-2019
-Borussia Monchengladbach vs Fortuna Dusseldorf @4:30pm
-Eintracht Frankfurt vs Borrusia Dortmund @7pm
Monday, 23-09-2019
-Wolfsburg vs Hoffenheim @9:30pm
