Weekend preview

Schalke are a point ahead of Stuttgart and two clear of third-placed Werder Bremen with two games left to play. If Stuttgart lose and Werder fail to win, a victory for Schalke in Dortmund would be enough to end the club's long wait for their first championship since 1958, five years before the founding of the Bundesliga.

Saturday's match at Dortmund's Westfalenstadion has been billed as Germany's hottest ever derby.

As well as the 80,000 fans who will pack the stadium, at least 42,000 Schalke fans will watch the match on giant screens at their own ground, half an hour down the road in Gelsenkirchen.

Schalke would do well to be cautious when they make Saturday's short trip. Dortmund have found some form at last under replacement coach Thomas Doll, with three successive wins taking them up to ninth place, still with a theoretical chance of a return to Europe.

Both teams should be at full strength for Saturday's game. Mladen Krstajic has recovered from injury and should be able to return in place of Dario Rodriguez in the heart of the Schalke defence. Dortmund expect Christian Woerns to be back fit to play in the same position.

Anything less than victory would leave the door wide open for Stuttgart and Werder, who have more comfortable looking games on Saturday.

Stuttgart, who are on a six-match winning run, are away to mid-table Bochum, while Werder are at home to relegation strugglers Eintracht Frankfurt.

Stuttgart will be without Fernando Meira, one of their goalscorers in last weekend's 2-0 win at Hamburg SV, who also picked up a fifth booking in the game.

Werder recovered from their UEFA Cup semi-final defeat to stay in the title race with a 4-1 win away to Hertha Berlin last weekend.

They were further boosted this week by news that inspirational midfielder Torsten Frings has rejected an offer from Juventus and will instead sign a contract extension.

The top three clubs are guaranteed a place at least in the qualifiers for the Champions League, now that fourth-placed Bayern Munich can no longer catch up.

The outgoing champions are away to Energie Cottbus on Saturday, when all nine matches of the penultimate round kick off at the same time.