Bottom-placed FC Koln will be looking to further close the gap behind safety when they take on sixth-placed Borussia Dortmund, who are obviously eager to return to Champions League positions.

Current BVB boss Peter Stoger returns to RheinEnergieStadion for the first time since he was sacked from the post despite player and fans objection, which makes this tie even more interesting.

With the European campaign clearly serving as an unwanted distraction, FC Koln were utterly disappointing in the Bundesliga opening stages.

The Billy Goats quickly slipped to rock bottom and just few weeks ago it looked as though they would not be able to escape the drop.

However, new boss Sven Ruthenbeck has managed to turn things around, with his side recording three straight wins before they played out a 1-1 draw with Augsburg.

This has seen FC Koln close the gap behind safety to seven points and with another 14 games to go, they now have a fighting chance at least.

Head coach Sven Ruthenback has resumed a welcoming boost given that Marco Hoger and Christian Clemens have resumed full training.

Probable starting line-up (4-4-2): Horn – Sorensen, Mere, Heintz, Hector – Clemens, Hoger, Ozcan, Jojic – Terodde, Osako.

Borussia Dortmund have shown some improvement since Peter Stoger took over the reigns, but the good run of results was short-lived.

The Millionaires are again going through a rough patch having shared spoils with Wolfsburg, Hertha and Freiburg in their last three league fixtures.

Despite occupying sixth position in the overall standings, Borussia sit just three points behind second-placed Bayer Leverkusen, although they need to quickly return to winning ways.

The Millionaires have failed to impress on the road of late, winning just one of last six away games, but they have been made 1.90 (10/11) favourites to claim maximum points.

The visitors will be without Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who has just joined Arsenal, while Marc Bartra has also left the club.

The likes of Maximilian Philipp, Erik Durm, Andriy Yarmolenko and Marcel Schmelzer are all out injured, but Raphael Guerreiro could feature.

Probable starting line-up (4-4-4): Burki – Piszczek, Sokratis, Toprak, Toljan – Kagawa, Weigl, Gotze – Pulisic, Schurrle, Sancho.