Hamburger SV welcome Mainz 05 to the Imtech Arena on Sunday afternoon with both sides struggling in the Bundesliga.

HSV are bottom with twelve points from their thirteen games. Scoring goals has been a problem and they have only scored seven so far. Everyone else has scored at least thirteen. They do have a good defence though and only four teams have conceded less. HSV have been better at home, with eight of their twelve points coming at the Imtech Arena. Hamburg have been very inconsistent and despite winning three of their last seven games they have been unable to put together two wins in a row in the league since April 2013.

They go into this game without Heiko Westermann, Marcell Jansen, Rene Adler, Valjmir Nafiu and Maxmilian Beister. Westermann has been one of Die Rothosen's best players and his absence will be felt by Josef Zinnbauer. Brazilian, Cleber looks the most likely to replace Westermann and partner Johan Djourou in the centre of defence.

Mainz 05 are tenth in the Bundesliga having drawn over half of their league games. They made a good start to the season going eight games unbeaten but they have now gone five games without a win and have lost three in that run to drop into the bottom half of the table. Die Nullfünfer have only won once away from home but they have managed four draws and only lost twice. 

Mainz will be without Julian Baumgartlinger who has excelled in midfield this season as well as Jonas Hofmann and Christoph Moritz. They have had some great performances from young players including Stefan Bell at centre-back, Loris Karius in goal and Johannes Geis in midfield. Top goalscorer, Shinji Okazaki has also impressed scoring seven league goals.

HSV need to start picking up points if they are to avoid relegation from the Bundesliga for the first time in their history and they will know this is the kind of game that they need to take points from. Mainz will prove to be difficult though having only lost three games this season and will believe they can take something from a Hamburg side that has really struggled in the last two seasons.

Probable Lineups

Hamburger SV - Drobny; Diekmeier, Djourou, Cleber, Ostrzolek; Behrami, van der Vaart; Müller, Holtby, Marcos; Lasogga.

Mainz 05 - Karius; Brosinski, Bell, Bungert, Diaz; Geis, Park; Jairo, Koo, Allagui; Okazaki.