Hamburg SV 0 - 0 Bayer Leverkusen

Hamburg SV v Bayer Leverkusen: Preview

Updated: October 16, 2009, 3:25 PM UK

Hamburg and Bayer Leverkusen meet in tomorrow evening's top-of-the-table Bundesliga clash, but Leverkusen director of sport Rudi Voller does not expect the game to be a title decider.

After eight games of the season, the two clubs have already moved four points clear of third-placed Schalke and are eight points above pre-season title favourites Bayern Munich.

But Voller fully expects Bayern to recover and make life difficult for the current top two.

"Munich are always good for a winning streak and that is why everybody, whether it be Hamburg, Bremen, Hoffenheim, Schalke or of course also us, would do well to keep their feet on the ground,'' he said in an interview with ran.de.

"At the moment, it is more important for us to have such a big advantage over clubs like Stuttgart or Borussia Dortmund.

"They are two of our rivals in the quest for a place among the top five. It helps us that they both have to get a good run of wins going to reel us in.

"Last year, that was not the case. There were nine or 10 clubs challenging and, although we are only eight games into the season, this is still a good sign.''

Leverkusen slipped out of the top five late on last season and missed out on a place in Europe under Bruno Labbadia.

He has since moved on to become coach of Hamburg, although the way he left Leverkusen under a black cloud in the summer remains the main talking point ahead of this game.

But that is not the case for Labbadia, who is only thinking of the future now.

"Hamburg are playing Leverkusen and of course people are going to talk about that, but for me, it is not an issue,'' he said.

Labbadia has more pressing matters to deal with, namely who to field in his attack tomorrow.

Mladen Petric has been ruled out until the new year while Paolo Guerrero is also out for six months, as are Collin Benjamin and Alex Silva.

Markus Berg is the only fit striker and Tunay Torun has been called up from the youth team to provide support after former Dortmund striker Ebi Smolarek was unable to impress while on trial.

"We have decided not to offer Ebi Smolarek a contract,'' said Labbadia.