The term ‘six-pointer’ rarely applies more than the clash at Stuttgart on Saturday afternoon, with both teams desperate to avoid the drop this season.

The home side have made a real fight of it, pulling themselves from the foot of the table following their 3-2 home win against Werder Bremen, but their last five games is a perfect reflection of their inconsistency this season.

Die Schwaben have picked up two massive wins in their last five games, beating Eintracht and of course Bremen at home, but lost the other three by a 9-2 aggregate.

Manager Huub Stevens will be looking for a response from his side, who lost 2-1 at Augsburg but remain within a point of Paderborn who occupy the play-off spot, and three points from Hannover and their opponents Freiburg. 

Their opponents have picked up just one point from a possible nine, losing against Wolfsburg and Mainz, that coming after they had recorded impressive home wins against Augsburg and Köln. 

Christian Streich’s side will be looking to reach the magic points total as soon as possible, but with games against Paderborn, Hamburg, Bayern and Hannover to follow this, it is imperative that die Breisgauers get back to their best form if they are to avoid the drop.

Having scored just five in their last seven matches, Freiburg will be hoping Admir Mehmedi can find some form and fire them to success as he likely returns to his regular spot up front.

Last time the two sides met, Stuttgart humiliated their rivals with a 4-1 at the Schwarzwald-Stadion. Harnik opened the scoring on the half-hour mark before Darida levelled on 41 minutes. However, VfB pulled out a clinical second half display with goals from Gruezo, Werner and Harnik again to secure a 4-1 victory.

Everything about this game points to a home win, with Stuttgart having won their last four home matches against Freiburg, scoring at least two goals in all but one of their last seven home games against them. The visitors meanwhile have failed to score in five of their last six away matches.

In team news, Serey Dié is suspended for the home time and will likely be replaced by Oriol Romeu, while Hlousek and Sakai will compete for the start at left-back. Martin Harnik returns from his suspension, likely starting on the right wing of a 4-2-3-1 formation.

Mats Moeller Dæhli will miss out through injury for Freiburg, and Pavel Krmas is out through suspension. Felix Klaus will return from a ban to start on the left wing of a flat 4-4-2, meaning Mehmedi can switch back to his usual role as striker. Oliver Sorg will probably start in central midfield alongside Julian Schuster, while Riether and Mujzda will compete to start at right back.

"Compliments are all well and good – but they don’t earn you points. We are not in a position to go about things cautiously,” Huub Stevens remarked ahead of the derby on Saturday.

His opposite number Christian Stretch certainly didn't talk down how big a game this is, but showed respect to Stuttgart in the pre-match conference.

"This is a championship game against relegation. They have a lot of quality” emphasised the Freiburg coach, "but we also have plenty of qualities shown in recent weeks, by the way we played."

Predicted XI

Stuttgart: Ulrich - Klein, Rüdiger, Niedermeyer, Hlousek - Gentner, Romeu - Harnik, Maxim, Kostic - Ginczek.

Freiburg: Bürki - Riether, Torrejón, Mitrovic, Günter - Schmid, Schuster, Sorg, Klaus - Frantz, Mehmedi.