Stuttgart travel to Borussia Dortmund in the Bundesliga today on the back of a morale-boosting first win under new coach Bruno Labbadia.

Labbadia’s side is second from bottom with 15 points but its chances of escaping the relegation zone increased after beating third-place Mainz last weekend.

“My team showed fight and tactically we were sound,” Labbadia said after the 1-0 win. “We needed that.”

Despite the renewed optimism, however, Stuttgart face a daunting task to take anything from Dortmund in front of another sellout crowd of 80,000.

Dortmund are unbeaten in seven games at home and boast the league’s best defensive record having conceded only 11 goals in 18 matches.

The league leaders have 46 points, 12 more than nearest rivals Hannover, who host Schalke, and 16 ahead of defending champion Bayern Munich, who host Kaiserslautern.

Although Dortmund are also the league’s top-scoring side, coach Juergen Klopp is refusing to talk up the possibility of a seventh league title, and a first since 2002.

“To develop further, the team needs instructions on various things,” Klopp told Kicker. “Things that we still need to improve on.”

After the 3-1 defeat of Bayer Leverkusen last weekend, Klopp’s players studied a video of the game to see how they could further improve.

“The video showed that it was not a perfect game from our side,” midfielder Nuri Sahin said. “We could see that we didn’t play at 100 per cent. There is still potential there to do even better.”

Bayern Munich, who retain only a faint hope of catching Dortmund and retaining their title, lie fifth after a disappointing 1-1 draw with struggling Wolfsburg but could climb to third if they beat midtable Kaiserslautern, depending on other results.

The 22-year-old Thomas Kraft should keep his place in goal after an impressive Bundesliga debut last weekend. French winger Franck Ribery will miss the game due to a muscle strain but Arjen Robben is fit after making his first appearance of the season against Wolfsburg.

Tomorrow, fourth-place Bayer Leverkusen travel to bottom side Borussia Moenchengladbach, who will hope to build on last weekend’s 1-0 away victory over Nuremberg.

Also tomorrow, Hoffenheim host St. Pauli.