With the international less than one week away, there is still time for one more game in the 2. Bundesliga. As matchweek 9 comes to an end, Fortuna Dusseldorf and Duisburg face off on Monday night and both teams are desperate for points. Still joint with first-placed Holstein Kiel with a game in hand, three points for Dusseldorf will see them go top of the league. Their opponents are battling at the bottom end of the league. They are currently 15^th and just a place above the relegation play-off place and a win could see them move up three places.

STATS

• Dusseldorf have been great so far this term and have won six of their eight matches. They have won four of their last five with a 3-1 loss against Fürth upsetting their unbeaten record in the league. They fought off a potential comeback from St Pauli in their last game to hold onto a narrow 2-1 lead and this kept them level on points with their title rivals.
• Duisburg have struggled this campaign and have lost four of their eight games so far. However, they beat fourth-placed Arminia 4-0 away from home in their fifth match so they have shown that they can compete with the stronger sides in the league. They didn’t expect to get anything from their last game against Holstein Kiel and they came away from the game with nothing after losing 3-1.
• Despite being up there at the top end of the table, Dusseldorf have failed to find a clinical striker so far. Their leading goal scorers are Rouwen Hennings, Florian Neuhaus and Marcel Sobottka who have each scored three goals.
• Duisburg haven’t had the same struggle finding a source of goals and both Moritz Stoppelkamp and Borys Tashchy have more than the three Dusseldorf players with four goals each.

HEAD TO HEAD

Dusseldorf would be expected to have dominated Duisburg in recent years but in the last five meetings, they have beaten them just once while losing two. The last match was two seasons ago and ended with the minnows, Duisburg, beating Dusseldorf 2-1 which meant they picked up four points in these fixtures. There hasn’t been a first-half goal between the two sides in four of the last five meetings.

DUSSELDORF NEWS

A win for Dusseldorf will stand them in good stead going into this international break as they will have a three-point lead over the sides below them. They have a great chance to do that but Michael Rensing, their main goalkeeper is injured while Lukas Schmitz and Kaan Ayhan are suspended and won’t feature.

Latest matches: Fortuna Dusseldorf

23.09.2017	2. B	FC St. Pauli	Fortuna Dusseldorf	1:2	W
20.09.2017	2. B	Fortuna Dusseldorf	SSV Jahn Regensburg	1:0	W
17.09.2017	2. B	Greuther Furth	Fortuna Dusseldorf	3:1	L
10.09.2017	2. B	Fortuna Dusseldorf	FC Union Berlin	3:2	W
30.08.2017	Club	TSV Meerbusch	Fortuna Dusseldorf	2:7	W

DUISBURG NEWS

Duisburg must avoid defeat in this fixture or they could find themselves in serious trouble when the next matchweek comes around. They are without Zlatko Janjic, Tim Albutat and Borys Tashchy, one of their leading scorers. The first two are expected to be out for the rest of the year.

Latest matches: MSV Duisburg

22.09.2017	2. B	MSV Duisburg	Holstein Kiel	1:3	L
19.09.2017	2. B	FC Ingolstadt	MSV Duisburg	2:2	D
16.09.2017	2. B	MSV Duisburg	1 FC Nuremberg	1:6	L
09.09.2017	2. B	Arminia Bielefeld	MSV Duisburg	0:4	W
02.09.2017	Club	MSV Duisburg	VfB Speldorf	8:1	W

SUMMARY

It’s easy to work out which of these two sides are favourites heading into the match and it is certainly the home team. Fortuna Dusseldorf should come away from the match with all three points due to home advantage as well as their superior squad strength. Duisburg have already beaten a strong side so they shouldn’t be written off, but the hosts should have too much quality.