Sunday's trip to Hamburg is the first of six games against top Bundesliga sides for Cologne.

But their striker Lukas Podolski is still positive his side can pick something up during the next month and a half.

After facing Hamburg, Cologne have Schalke, Stuttgart, Wolfsburg, Bayer Leverkusen and Podolski's former club Bayern Munich on the agenda.

"The German Football League must have shuffled the deck wrong," joked Podolski.

"But we are not going to say we have no chance at all. If you look at the players we have in our team, then we have no reason to be scared."

Podolski was on Hamburg's wishlist last year before he chose to return to his home-town club in a move he maintains he does not regret, even if they have made a slow start to the season.

"Hamburg have tried to sign me twice and I like the club and the city, but my heart chose Cologne," he told the Hamburger Abendblatt newspaper.

"Many players always talk about the Champions League or wanting to earn more money or gain experience abroad, but other things were more important to me.

"That doesn't happen often that a player is happy going back to his home-town club.

"Everybody has to do what they think is the best for them."

Podolski is still searching for his first goal since rejoining Cologne and he will be out to get it at the HSV-Arena tomorrow when he partners last season's top scorer Milivoje Novakovic in attack.

Hamburg coach will change almost half of his team after playing a second-string side against Guingamp in the UEFA Europa League in midweek, but he expects a similar result to the 3-1 triumph which completed an 8-2 aggregate win over their French opponents.

"We certainly want three points because anything other than that would be a step backwards compared to the Wolfsburg game," he said.