Preview: Stuttgart vs. Greuther Furth - prediction, team news, lineups

Stuttgart enjoyed an impressive return to the top flight in Germany last year, whilst Greuther Furth return for their second ever Bundesliga campaign.

Match preview

Stuttgart manager Pellegrino Matarazzo will be hoping for a third successful season in a row this year. After leading the side to promotion from the 2.Bundesliga in his first six months in charge, he then enjoyed a hugely impressive ninth-placed finish on their return, missing out on a European place by only five points.

After performing slightly better away from home than at home last season, Matarazzo will be looking for a positive start back in front of their own fans in their opener.

In addition to this, despite a successful campaign, Stuttgart did finish poorly with five defeats from their final seven matches.

Unfortunately, their summer preparations have been hit by losing two key players of the past couple of seasons; number one goalkeeper Gregor Kobel has moved on to Borussia Dortmund, with Mainz's Florian Muller being brought in as a replacement, whilst key forward Nicolas Gonzalez has also been sold to Fiorentina for a significant fee.

Despite the loss of these players, pre-season has been successful for Stuttgart. In the seven matches played, four have been won and only one defeat has been suffered, which was to Barcelona.

The first competitive match of the season saw them face amateur side BFC Dynamo in the first round of the DFB-Pokal.

A comfortable 6-0 win, where many other Bundesliga sides struggled, has set them up perfectly for the opening match against Greuther Furth, a fixture in which the home side has won the past four encounters.

Greuther Furth have returned to the Bundesliga for their second ever campaign. The only previous participation in the division was back in the 2012-13 season, which ended with the side managing only four wins all season and an immediate return to the 2.Bundesliga.

Previous years in the 2.Bundesliga saw Greuther finish in mid-table, so a second place finish and automatic promotion was certainly unexpected.

Manager Stefan Leitl will be hoping his side can carry this momentum into the opener in order to put up a greater fight in the top flight this time around.

That momentum last year included a strong finish to the season with only one defeat from the final 10 matches, and the strongest away record in the division.

However, some of that form will have already been lost before the league season has even begun. A poor transfer window has seen Greuther lose three of their first-team players of the promotion-winning side to Bundesliga rivals, and only manage to replace them with free transfers and loan signings so far.

On top of this, pre-season preparations have seen the newly-promoted side play five friendlies, but fail to win any, whilst losing three of the matches.

A humiliating defeat in the first round of the DFB-Pokal followed at the weekend, losing on penalties to amateur side SV Babelsberg after a 2-2 draw.

Stuttgart form (all competitions):

Greuther Furth form (all competitions):

Team News

Stuttgart's top goalscorer from last season Sasa Kalajdzic remains unavailable for the home side after also missing out on the 6-0 demolition of BFC Dynamo.

The towering striker has been strongly linked with a move to Champions League winners Chelsea after top-scoring with 16 Bundesliga goals.

Kalajdzic is not the only unavailable player, though; Naouirou Ahamada, Momo Cisse, Tanguy Coulibaly, Lilian Egloff, Chris Fuhrich, Orel Managala and Nikolas Nartey are all missing, whilst Roberto Massimo is labelled as a doubt due to an ankle injury.

Florian Muller should make his Bundesliga debut for the hosts in goal.

For Greuther, their list of injury worries is far smaller. Jessic Ngankam is ruled out with a knee injury, whilst Robin Kehr is doubtful with a groin issue.

Gideon Jung, Nils Seufert and Adrian Fein are all expected to start for their Bundesliga debuts for the newly-promoted side.

Stuttgart possible starting lineup:

Muller; Mavropanos, Anton, Kempf; Thommy, Endo, Karazor, Sosa; Forster, Klimowicz; Al Ghaddioui

Greuther Furth possible starting lineup:

Burchert; Meyerhofer, Jung, Bauer, Itter; Seguin, Fein, Seufert; Green; Nielsen, Hrgota

We say: Stuttgart 2-0 Greuther Furth

Despite the missing Kalajdzic, we think Stuttgart should win their opener comfortably to continue on from their impressive season last year. They should have too much quality for the newly-promoted Greuther Furth, who could be in for a long season indeed.