<i>Karneval</i> cousins face off in Cathedral City
Karnevalsverein 1. FSV Mainz 05 travel to proud Karneval city Cologne to take ambitious 1. FC Köln on Saturday (kick-off 15:30CET/14:30GMT).
History
Click here for a review of Köln's first third of the season
Top facts
- The two sides' form since the start of October has been exactly the same (W-L-L-D-W).Köln find themselves ahead of Rhineland neighbours Bayer 04 Leverkusen at this stage in a season for the first time in almost 20 years.Both teams suffered defeats immediately after the last international break.The Billy Goats have won only six of their 23 home matches since returning to the Bundesliga at the start of 2014/15.The away team has never won this fixture in ten previous meetings at this level.Köln's Timo Horn and Mainz's Loris Karius are currently the youngest first-choice goalkeepers in the Bundesliga.This weekend's hosts have only scored twice from set pieces in their last 46 Bundesliga matches, although two of those came last time out in the Rhine derby win at Leverkusen's BayArena.Köln have scored the most headers (six), but have also conceded just as many.
Possible line-ups
Köln: Horn - Olkowski, Sörensen, Heintz, Hector - Lehmann, Gerhardt - Risse, Osako, Bittencourt - Modeste
Mainz: Karius - Brosinski, Bungert, Bell, Bengtsson - Baumgartlinger, Latza - Jairo, Malli, De Blasis - Muto