Perhaps a welcome break from league football as VfB Stuttgart & FC Köln face off to decide who makes it to next stage of the DFB Pokal. All the pre-match information is available here!
It’s busy days for these teams as both were in action only a few days ago. There’s no rest for the wicked, or in this case; no rest for VfB Stuttgart and FC Köln.
VfB Stuttgart form and stats
Action has already taken place for Stuttgart in DFB Pokal as they have defeated BFC Dynamo to reach the 2nd Round. Stuttgart was eliminated in the 3rd round last season in the DFB Pokal.2 victories, 1 draw and 2 defeats. That’s what VfB Stuttgart have to build on here at Mercedes-Benz-Arena in the Bundesliga.
The spoils were shared in VfB Stuttgart's previous game, also at home. Visiting FC Union Berlin travelled back with a draw after a 1-1 scoreline. Wahid Faghir was able to secure the draw 1-1 in the game against FC Union Berlin after coming on as a substitute and scoring the final goal. In the starting lineup today? Konstantinos Mavropanos was "man of the match" with a rating of 8.03 out of 10. The defender Mavropanos hit one key pass and won 8 of 9 duels.
1-1 away at Borussia M'gladbach before that.The bookmakers consider this a fairly even contest. One could say only the home advantage separates the teams. It could be relevant to look at how Stuttgart have performed in matches similar to this (as small favourites). Our database has found six matches with the results: Won two, drawn three and lost one.
The manager P. Matarazzo will start preparations for the next game as soon this is finished, as the hosts are going to FC Augsburg in only four days.
Stuttgart can score goals in their home matches. After 5 league matches they have found the net 12 times. Defensively it’s touch-and-go for the home team as 9 goals have been conceded.
FC Köln form and stats
The traveling awayteam has defeated Carl Zeiss Jena in order to reach 2nd round of DFB Pokal. FC Köln was sent out of DFB Pokal in the 3rd round last season.0 wins, 2 draws and 2 losses. That’s the product of FC Köln playing as the away team in the Bundesliga this season.
FC Köln delivered a 2-2 draw playing at home against Bayer Leverkusen in their previous match; a Bundesliga game. The match against Bayer Leverkusen looked like a defeat for FC Köln, but they did not accept the outcome and clawed their way back to 2-2. Anthony Modeste equalized in the 82nd minute. The attacker Anthony Modeste got a match rating of 8.24 in that game. Modeste scored two goals and hit one key pass.
Preceding that game, the 0-5 loss visiting Hoffenheim's place.So, this is expected to be a close game, an even contest. Looking at earlier matches with FC Köln playing away and similar expectations, we found eight relevant matches. Results were threeKöln wins, two draws and three defeats.
There might be some complaints about the fixture list from the Kölnmanager S. Baumgart as the team has another away game coming up in only three days, this time against Borussia Dortmund.
Kölnhave scored 4 goals on their travels this season, from 4 away games in the league. The opposition has been scoring high and low on Kölns goalkeeper in away games this season, as they have let in 10 goals in 4 travels.
Head 2 Head
H2H stats regardless of arena (last ten matches): Stuttgart five wins, three draws and FC Köln two victories. As for goals, five matches ended with three or more goals (over 2,5), five games had two or less.Top Goalscorers
  A. Modeste 6 goals |   M. Kempf 3 goals |  K. Mavropanos 3 goals |
VfB Stuttgart missing players
FC Köln missing players
| VfB Stuttgart | FC Köln | ||||||
| Total | Home | Statistics | Stat | Away | Total | ||
| 25 | 16 | Played | P | 11 | 25 | ||
| 10 | 7 | Won | W | 3 | 11 | ||
| 5 | 2 | Drew | D | 5 | 8 | ||
| 10 | 7 | Lost | L | 3 | 6 | ||
| 52 | 31 | Scored | S | 18 | 43 | ||
| 40 | 28 | Conceded | C | 18 | 37 | ||
| 96% | 100% | Over 0.5 | O 0.5 | 91% | 96% | ||
| 92% | 94% | Over 1.5 | O 1.5 | 91% | 88% | ||
| 68% | 75% | Over 2.5 | O 2.5 | 55% | 60% | ||
| 44% | 50% | Over 3.5 | O 3.5 | 45% | 44% | ||
| 28% | 31% | Over 4.5 | O 4.5 | 36% | 28% | ||
| 64% | 69% | BTTS | BTTS | 64% | 72% | ||
| 20% | 19% | Clean Sheets | C S | 18% | 16% | ||
| 20% | 12% | Failed to Score | F T | 27% | 16% | ||
| 3.4 | 4.1 | Corners for (avg) | C F | 5.3 | 5.7 | ||
| 5.1 | 4.2 | Corners against (avg) | C A | 2.7 | 3.5 | ||
| 1.8 | 1.1 | Yellow cards (avg) | Y C | 1.7 | 1.7 | ||
| 3 | 1 | Red cards | R C | 1 | 1 | ||
| 11 | 12.6 | Shots (avg) | S ( | 13.6 | 16.1 | ||
| 4 | 4.1 | Shots on Target (avg) | S O | 5 | 6 | ||
| 43% | 47% | Goal Efficiency | G E | 33% | 29% | ||
| Total | Home | Away | |||||||||||||||||||
| # | Team | MP | W | D | L | F | A | MP | W | D | L | F | A | MP | W | D | L | F | A | +/- | P |
| 1 | Bayern München | 9 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 33 | 8 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 20 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 13 | 4 | 25 | 22 |
| 2 | Borussia Dortmund | 9 | 7 | 0 | 2 | 25 | 15 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 17 | 8 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 8 | 7 | 10 | 21 |
| 3 | Freiburg | 9 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 14 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 7 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 7 | 3 | 8 | 19 |
| 4 | Bayer Leverkusen | 9 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 23 | 14 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 9 | 9 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 14 | 5 | 9 | 17 |
| 5 | FC Union Berlin | 9 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 13 | 10 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 8 | 3 | 16 |
| 6 | RB Leipzig | 9 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 20 | 9 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 18 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 11 | 14 |
| 7 | Mainz 05 | 9 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 12 | 9 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 3 | 13 |
| 8 | FC Köln | 9 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 15 | 16 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 11 | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 10 | -1 | 13 |
| 9 | Wolfsburg | 9 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 9 | 12 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 6 | -3 | 13 |
| 10 | Hertha BSC | 9 | 4 | 0 | 5 | 11 | 21 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 16 | -10 | 12 |
| 11 | Hoffenheim | 9 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 17 | 15 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 10 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 7 | 10 | 2 | 11 |
| 12 | Borussia M'gladbach | 9 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 10 | 12 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 9 | -2 | 11 |
| 13 | VfB Stuttgart | 9 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 14 | 15 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 12 | 9 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 6 | -1 | 10 |
| 14 | VfL Bochum 1848 | 9 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 7 | 16 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 13 | -9 | 10 |
| 15 | Eintracht Frankfurt | 9 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 9 | 14 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 10 | -5 | 8 |
| 16 | FC Augsburg | 9 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 18 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 9 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 9 | -13 | 6 |
| 17 | Arminia Bielefeld | 9 | 0 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 14 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 8 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 6 | -9 | 5 |
| 18 | Greuther Furth | 9 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 6 | 24 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 7 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 4 | 17 | -18 | 1 |
- German Football Association - (also in English)