Bochum vs. Leipzig preview: RB look to jump back into the top four – Bulinews.com

Bochum host Leipzig, who now must jump Dortmund in order to claim a Champions League spot for next season.

Bochum

Following their crazy win over Bayern, Bochum fell back down to earth with a poor showing in a 5-2 loss against Gladbach. The side have moved back down to 15th in the table, but are still eight points clear of the relegation playoff spot.

Following Matchday 24’s contest, Bochum have one of the easier schedules to close out the season and should be able to claim enough points to stay up. This Saturday, Bernardo will face the club that he played for from 2016 to 2018.

In his presser, Thomas Letsch stated, “Everyone’s role is clearly assigned. We have to give it our all again, like we did against Bayern. We were bad in Gladbach as the gaps were too big, but we analyzed the game. The training week was very good, there was fire in it.”

Team News

Michael Esser and Mohammed Tolba are unavailable with injuries, while Manuel Riemann and Erhan Masovic are both suspended. Goalkeeper Niclas Thiede is also out, meaning Andreas Luthe will start in goal.

Leipzig

Leipzig barely lost to Bayern last weekend, but luckily with Dortmund’s loss, they remain just one point behind the 4th-place side. It’s now time for Marco Rose’s boys to get going, as they’ve failed to claim points from any of their big games in 2024.

Rose is likely to continue with somewhat of a 4-2-2-2 formation on Matchday 24 with Benjamin Sesko and Lois Openda up front. It’s still unclear if Janis Blaswich or Peter Gulacsi, who’s back healthy again, will start in goal this weekend.

This week, midfielder Kevin Kampl said, “Saturday’s game in Bochum won’t be easy. It is never easy against VfL anyway. Their defense made it very difficult for us in the first half of the season. They stood compactly and deep. This time they will probably press even more and play man-to-man.”

Team News

Xaver Schlager is suspended and Lukas Klostermann is out with a hamstring issue.