The second round of the 2. Bundesliga will kick off on Friday with a pair of matches featuring local German clubs. In the most notable clash, two intriguing teams will meet. Nürnberg and Darmstadt 98, in the bookmakers' opinion, are not significant contenders for promotion. Their chances are assessed as mediocre. However, both teams have their own charisma that could influence their advancement. Nürnberg has been in the second-tier division of Germany for seven years now. Last year, the team was led by Miroslav Klose. Like a wave of a magic wand, Nürnberg immediately started scoring a lot, but also conceded many goals. The result of last season was a tenth place finish for Nürnberg, which is slightly better than the results from one and two years ago. Darmstadt 98 appointed their coach a couple of months before Klose arrived in Nürnberg. This happened right after the "lilies" began to lose in the 2. Bundesliga following their relegation from the elite division, where the club spent one season. Florian Kohfeldt managed to somewhat stabilize the team’s performance, but it was only enough for a final twelfth place in the league. Bookmakers have made the guests the favourites for the upcoming match, offering odds of 2.26 for their victory.

During the off-season, Nürnberg made twice as much from transfers as they spent on them. The main source of income was the transfer of Jens Kastrop to Borussia Mönchengladbach, for which the latter paid 4.5 million euros. Meanwhile, Klose's squad was bolstered by Semir Telalovic from Ulm, Luka Lochoshvili from Cremonese, and Mikaël Biron from RVDM47. The total expenditure on these players was just over two million euros, which is a decent budget for the 2. Bundesliga. In the first round of the championship, Nürnberg suffered a very disappointing away defeat to Elversberg, conceding the only goal to the opponent in the 90th minute.

Darmstadt 98 was also active in the transfer market. After selling a considerable number of players, the "lilies" acquired Pfeiffer from Augsburg and Furukawa from Iwata. The team took several players on loan. In the first round, Darmstadt 98 thrashed Bochum at their arena with a score of 4:1. However, a similar result in Nürnberg should not be expected. While the Ruhr club is still adjusting to the second division, the hosts of the upcoming match feel comfortable here.