VfB Stuttgart vs. Union Berlin preview: Stuttgart look to strike back against Union | OneFootball

Stuttgart

Stuttgart have picked up two crucial results in the space of a week. After spending the majority of the season in and around the top-four race, Die Schwaben made two statements against Bayer Leverkusen and Eintracht Frankfurt. 

A double from Jamie Leweling, alongside goals from Maximilian Mittelstädt and Deniz Undav saw Stuttgart race into a four-goal lead at the BayArena last weekend, before a late winner from Nikolas Nartey secured the 3-2 triumph against Frankfurt on Tuesday. 

VfB sit fourth in the standings heading into the Rückrunde, and are looking to avoid a similar run to last year, which saw them drop out of the European positions entirely before securing a Europa League path via their DFB-Pokal win. 

Sebastian Hoeneß's side fell to defeat in the reverse fixture against Sunday's guests, with Union picking up three points thanks to a 2-1 win on opening day.

Team news

Luca Jaquez and Dan-Axel Zagadou are expected to return to the fold in the coming weeks, alongside Lazar Jovanovic. Tiago Tomas is not expected to make a recovery until next month.

Bilal El Khannouss remains with Morocco at AFCON, with the tournament hosts set to take part in the final against Senegal this weekend. 

Predicted lineup - 4-2-3-1: Nübel - Assignon, Jeltsch, Chabot, Mittelstädt - Karazor, Stiller - Leweling, Nartey, Führich - Undav

Union Berlin

Union have started the new year with two successive draws against Mainz and Augsburg - though the former will remain longer in the memory thanks to late goals from Woo-Yeong Jeong and Marin Ljubicic.

Die Eisernen sit ninth in the Bundesliga standings, and know that they could be in with an outside shot of European football should they put a run of results together.

Union's goalscoring record has improved drastically when compared to last term, with Union just 12 goals away from matching the tally of 35 set last term. If they keep matching their x/G of 22.4, Steffen Baumgart's side could secure a much more comfortable finish.

Team news

Tom Rothe, Robert Skov and Tim Skarke are all doubts heading into the weekend, limiting Baumgart somewhat, while Derrek Köhn will miss Sunday's action through suspension.

Predicted lineup - 3-1-4-2: Rønnow - Doekhi, Querfeld, Leite - Khedira - Trimmel, Kemlein, Schäfer, Juranovic - Ansah, Ilic