Fortuna Dusseldorf hosts Paderborn

Fortuna Dusseldorf hosts Paderborn in a match from the 26th round of the German Bundesliga. For both teams this game at the Merkur Spiel-Arena is going to be first in the last two months since the COVID-19 quarantine break.

Both teams were in difficult situations before the break and they still are. Fortuna Dusseldorf have just 22 points and they are 16th in the league, while Paderborn are at the bottom of the table with just 16 points. One thing is absolutely clear here – both teams need the points.

Fortuna Dusseldorg won just one of their last five games in the Bundesliga before the break. This surprisingly happened during the visit to Freiburg, which most of us expected to end with a win for the home team. This win was followed by two consecutive draws against Hertha BSC and Mainz 05, so we can say Fortuna were improving a little bit before the pause.

At the same time Paderborn continue to look as the number one contender for relegation in the Bundesliga. The league newcomers won just one point in their last five Bundesliga mathes, losing all of the last four. The team is hardly scoring any goals and it’s obvious from the stats – Paderborn’s main strikers Streli Mamba and Dennis Srbeny have scored just 9 goals combined since the first round.

Against Fortuna Dusseldorf Paderborn could be without Sven Michel, Luca Kilian and Streli Mamba, who have some fitness problems before the next round. At the same time Fortuna Dusseldorf could be without Zack Steffen, Alfredo Morales, Adam Bodzek and Tim Wiesner, all of them dealing with different injuries.

In conclusion we can say that this is a real derby at the bottom before Fortuna Dusseldorf and Paderborn. One of these two teams is at the relegation playoff spot of the league, while the other one is in the relegation zone. Both of them must be hungry for points here, we don’t have any doubts about that.