Sitting pretty in third place, Hannover will be eager to extend the excellent start of the season and further increase their advantage over their rivals for European positions.

Hamburg, on the other hand, hope to make amends for the home loss to RB Leipzig, and they, too, are searching for third victory of the campaign.

Hannover did well to quickly return to the elite division after they were surprisingly relegated two years ago, and they seem determined to avoid another relegation tussle.

The 96ers seriously reinforced their ranks in the summer, splashing out on Jonathas, Ihlas Bebou, Julian Korb and Michael Esser, while also signing several quality footballers on a free transfer.

Hannover in turn enjoyed a dream start to the new Bundesliga campaign, defeating Mainz and Schalke before playing out a 1-1 draw with Wolfsburg on the road.

The 96ers have now been made 2.15 (23/20) favourites to defeat Hamburg and we see good value in those odds if we are honest.

Selection problems continue to mount for coach Andre Breitenreiter as the likes of Albornoz, Schwegler, Prib, Maier and Sarenen-Bazee remain sidelined.

Probable starting line-up (4-3-3): Tschauner – Korb, Sane, Felipe, Ostrzolek – Bakalorz, Anton, Schmiedebach – Harnik, Jonathas, Klaus.

Even if they somehow managed to survive the last few Bundesliga campaigns, Hamburg will have to show considerable improvement if they want to continue playing top flight football.

The Red Shorts again spent considerable funds on new players and their squad do look stronger than last term, but that doesn’t have to mean anything.

Hamburg did enjoy a bright start this season, recording back to back wins over Augsburg and Koln, but they were then beaten at home by RB Leipzig.

The fixture list now starts to get even more difficult as the Red Shorts will be facing Borussia Dortmund and Bayer Leverkusen after the clash with in-form Hannover.

New signing Sejad Salihovic will go straight into the squad for the Hannover clash, but Filip Kostic, Aaron Hunt, Nicolai Muller and Rick van Drongelen are out injured.

Probable starting line-up (4-2-3-1): Mathenia – Diekmeier, Papadopoulos, Jung, Sakai – Ekdal, Walace – Hahn, Holtby, Waldschmidt – Wood.