Bundesliga, Week 12 preview: Borussia Mönchengladbach will try to stay in fourth place

While Hannover will come into this one as the favorites and be expected to win, Braunschweig did beat Leverkusen last weekend. Might we see another shocker this week?

Time & Location: 20:30 Local / 2:30 PM Eastern; HDI Arena, Hannover

Prediction: Hannover 2 - 1 Eintracht Braunschweig

Time & Location: 15:30 Local / 9:30 AM Eastern; Allianz Arena, Munich

Prediction: Bayern Munich 3 - 0 Augsburg

I expect Schalke to do work this weekend and find a way to beat Werder. It’s not going to be easy for them, because nothing that they do is easy. They embarrassed themselves midweek against Chelsea in the Champions League. Well, Timo Hildebrand embarrassed himself. His time of being a starting goalkeeper for a “top” team appears to be at it’s end. Though, the real question may be, “Is Schalke a top team?”.

Time & Location: 15:30 Local / 9:30 AM Eastern; Veltins Arena, Gelsenkirchen

Prediction: Schalke 2 - 0 Werder Bremen

Leverkusen suffered an embarrassing loss last weekend to Eintracht Braunschweig, but they managed to pick up a point in the Ukraine. They’ll be hoping that they can find the back of the net this weekend when Hamburg comes to town. Aside from last week’s loss to Gladbach, Der Dinosaurier has been playing better since the appointment of Bert van Marwijk. They’ll need a little luck this weekend to beat Leverkusen.

Time & Location: 15:30 Local / 9:30 AM Eastern; BayArena, Leverkusen

Prediction: Bayer Leverkusen 2 - 0 Hamburg

Borussia Dortmund crushed Stuttgart last weekend, but then they fell 0-1 to Arsenal in the Champions League midweek. While Dieter Hecking has Wolfsburg all the way into fifth place and in what looks to be an entertaining fight for the fourth Champions League place, they will struggle to contain the BVB attack.

Time & Location: 15:30 Local / 9:30 AM Eastern; Volkswagen Arena, Wolfsburg

Prediction: Wolfsburg 0 - 2 Borussia Dortmund

I’m slowly coming around on how good of a team Hertha Berlin is and can be as the season moves forward. Hoffenheim plays a lot of very entertaining games. That’s because they give up as many goals as they score. There will be goals in this one.

Time & Location: 15:30 Local / 9:30 AM Eastern; Rhein Neckar Arena, Sinsheim

Prediction: Hoffenheim 2 - 3 Hertha Berlin

Lucien Favre will send his team out with a mission on Saturday: Take all three points and keep us in fourth place. Gladbach should be fighting for the fourth and final Champions League place awarded to the Bundesliga throughout the entire season, and as of this moment, I’d put them as favorites over Schalke to hold onto the spot. Nürnberg were crushed last week by Freiburg, and quite frankly, they’re not a very good team.

Time & Location: 18:30 Local / 12:30 PM Eastern; Borussia Park, Mönchengladbach

Prediction: Borussia Mönchengladbach 2 - 0 Nürnberg

These are two teams that I keep expecting to “turn it on” at any second and start playing great and winning games. They’re currently in 12th and 15th place. Yeesh. Both of these teams have talent on the field, but they’ve been unable to put things together thus far to start the 2013-14 season.

Time & Location: 15:30 Local / 9:30 AM Eastern; Coface Arena, Mainz

Prediction: Mainz 2 - 2 Eintracht Frankfurt

Stuttgart are coming off of a battering at the hands of Borussia Dortmund last weekend, but they should find things a little easier this weekend against struggling Freiburg. Yeah, Freiburg won big over Nürnberg last weekend, but it was their first win of the season. Yikes.

Time & Location: 17:30 Local / 11:30 AM Eastern; Mage Solar Stadion, Freiburg

Prediction: Freiburg 1 - 2 Stuttgart