1. FC Köln - Hamburger SV Preview: Geißböcke eager to extend incredible home run

In last year's 2014-15 campaign, the game between 1. FC Köln and Hamburger SV was the season opener on matchday one. In a rather poor match, neither team scored and the match ended in a goal-less 0-0 draw.

Köln had a rather good start in the 2015-16 campaign with an 3-1 away win at VfB Stuttgart and a good 1-1 draw against last year's second-placed side and DFB-Pokal winners, VfL Wolfsburg. Furthermore, they have not lost a home game for ten Bundesliga matches now.

Hamburger SV began the season with a 0-5 loss against champions Bayern Munich, but got back on track in a spectacular 3-2 home win against VfB Stuttgart.

Anthony Modeste, who had joined the Geißböcke from Bundesliga rivals TSG 1899 Hoffenheim, already seems to have settled in the team. He scored three goals in the 4-0 cup win against Regionalliga side SV Meppen, and netted once against VfB Stuttgart, assisting twice.

Simon Zoller joined Köln in summer 2014 but was then loaned out back to his former club 1. FC Kaiserslautern for the second half of the 2014-15 campaign. Now, he seems to have found his feet with the team. He scored the important opener against Wolfsburg and put in a great performance.

Hamburger SV seem to have settled in the Bundesliga now, after being knocked out of the DFB-Pokal in the first round against fourth-division side Carl Zeiss Jena and losing the opening game 0-5 against Bayern, but won 3-2 against Stuttgart last week.

Key players

For 1. FC Köln, Anthony Modeste and Simon Zoller will be key players again as they showed great performances in their last games. The new centre-back duo of Dominique Heintz and Frederik Sørensen will be important as well, as they already seem to be adapting well to life in the Bundesliga even though both only have played two matches in the German top division.

For Hamburg, René Adler may be important as he is often plays well whenever the rest of the team doesn't. But offensive players like Ivo Ilicevic, Ivica Olic and Pierre-Michel Lasogga will play an important role, too.

Team news

Both centre-backs Dominic Maroh and Mergim Mavraj are still injured, and versatile attacker Yuya Osako is set to miss out due to knee problems. At HSV, Johan Djourou won't be available as he is suffering from a torn muscle.