Stuttgart travels to Borussia Dortmund in the Bundesliga Saturday on the back of a morale-boosting first win under new coach Bruno Labbadia.
"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 faces a daunting task to take anything from Dortmund in front of another sellout crowd of 80,000.
Dortmund is unbeaten in seven games at home and boasts the league's best defensive record having conceded only 11 goals in 18 matches.
The league leader has 46 points, 12 more than nearest rival Hannover, which hosts Schalke, and 16 ahead of defending champion Bayern Munich, which hosts Kaiserslautern.
Although Dortmund is 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 percent. There is still potential there to do even better."
Bayern Munich, which retains only a faint hope of catching Dortmund and retaining its title, lies fifth after a disappointing 1-1 draw with struggling Wolfsburg but could climb to third if it beats 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.
Elsewhere, Hamburg will hope speculation linking striker Ruud van Nistelrooy with a return to former club Real Madrid does not distract the player's attention from the visit of Eintracht Frankfurt on Friday.
Also Saturday, it's Mainz vs. Wolfsburg; Freiburg vs. Nuremberg; Hannover vs. Schalke; and Cologne vs. Werder Bremen.
On Sunday, fourth-place Bayer Leverkusen travels to bottom side Borussia Moenchengladbach, which will hope to build on last weekend's 1-0 away victory over Nuremberg.
Also Sunday, it's Hoffenheim vs. St. Pauli.
