"We're looking forward to a big challenge in a great atmosphere at a large stadium. We know that it's currently the toughest possible task in the league to play away against the league leaders. But in recent weeks, we've worked out ways to win matches. It's also our goal on Saturday to get points."

"They are unbeaten in five matches and extremely stable, a lot is working well - especially in attack. They score many goals and bring good energy. It will be a big challenge for us."

Darmstadt will be without Matthias Bader (cruciate ligament rupture), Fabian Holland (cruciate ligament rupture), Fraser Hornby (lateral ligament problems), Paul Will (cruciate ligament rupture), Christoph Zimmermann (knee problems)

Stefan Leitl has his entire squad at his disposal.

Schuhen – López, Riedel, Vukotic, Bueno – Klefisch, Müller, Förster – Corredor – Vilhemsson, Lidberg

Zieler – Muroya, Neumann, Halstenberg, Wdowik – Leopold, Kunze – Lee, Rochelt – Tresoldi, Ngankam

Last time out Darmstadt recorded a 3-1 victory against Hertha, before that a 5-1 win in Fürth. In total, the Lilies have come away as winners four times during this period (once after extra time in the DFB Cup).

On the last matchday, 96 suffered a 3-1 defeat in Elversberg – coming after three consecutive victories.

History was made in the Bundesliga clash in August 2015 in Darmstadt (2-2): Hannover's Kenan Karaman headed the ball against the underside of the crossbar, and for the first time in the Bundesliga, Hawk-Eye was actively used and reported to the referee: No Goal!

Lilies coach Florian Kohfeldt celebrated his first victory as a Bundesliga manager on 19 November 2017 against Hannover in his second match (a 4-0 home win with Werder Bremen, thanks to a hat-trick from Max Kruse).

In the last two encounters in the 2022/23 season, there were home wins for both sides (1-0 for Darmstadt and 2-1 for Hannover, respectively) – in the two matches, there were three sending-offs (red card for Hannover's Phil Neumann, second yellow cards for Darmstadt's Matthias Bader and Braydon Manu).

Between 1993 and 2015, the two clubs didn't face each other at all, but since then they've met eleven times – of these eleven competitive matches, Darmstadt lost only two (seven wins, two draws).

Welcome along and thanks for joining us for build-up and live coverage of this Matchday 13 fixture between Hannover 96 and SV Darmstadt 98.