First of the two remaining clashes of the German Bundesliga round 8 that will take place on the second day of the weekend will be staged at Bay-Arena in Leverkusen between hosts and guests from the city of Wolves, Wolfsburg. Leverkusen is coming off from a 1:1 road draw against Schalke 04 in Gelsenkirchen while Wolfsburg recorded third straight draw at home against FSV Mainz.
These are not the teams that can praise themselves with a good form as three wins in fourteen combined matches are not that appealing but I think that we’ll see a full pray going on one of the sides because another draw would be opposite to both teams tendencies lately. Probably not very “pretty” soccer display is on the verge but we won’t object if it goes the way we shall predict it will. Let’s take a closer look.
Bayer Leverkusen vs. VFL Wolfsburg
Three-Way: 1: Bayer Leverkusen -143; X: +355 Draw; VFL Wolfsburg +560
Spread -1: Bayer Leverkusen -103; VFL Wolfsburg +100
Total +3: Over +108; Under -111
BAYER LEVERKUSEN
The Bayer Leverkusen team managed to connect two games without a loss prior to the international break and they’ll definitely try to extend that streak against the Wolves at home this Sunday. They currently rank at No. 11 spot in the league table with eight points in seven games and a 2-2-3 record. Their goal difference is 13-11 (9-2 at home) as they record 1.86 goals scored and 1.57 goals conceded per game so far. They are especially effective at Bay Arena where they average 3.00 goals scored per game.
Every home game so far into the season had over 2.5 goals in total (86% of total matches) and 67% of the matches in front of their own crowd had over 3.5 goals in total. Also, they’ve managed to score at least one goal in both halves in every single home matchup while in 71% of their total duels both teams scored. In 29% of their games, they’ve conceded at least one goal in both halves. Bundesliga’s and Borussia Dortmund’s legend, coach Heiko Herrlich prefers the 4-2-3-1 scheme and that was the case in the last round draw against the Miners. Retsos, Tah, Bender, and Wendell operated as a defensive line in front of the goalie Leno while Aranguiz, Brandt, Volland, and Bellarabi had mostly midfield assignments. The Lone attacker in starting eleven was Alario.
Forward Kevin Volland is the team’s leading scorer with four goals while Julian Brandt has two in his account. Lucas Alario, Charles Aranguiz, Leon Bailey, Karim Bellarabi, Dominik Kohr, Admir Mehmedi and Wendell all have one goal scored so far. Aranguiz and Bailey are also team’s leading assisters with two each while passing segment belongs to defender Sven Bender with 382 total passes. Goalkeeper Bernd Leno has 15 saves and two games with clean sheets in seven matches.
Coach Herrlich has most of his players available for Sunday as only three guys are listed at the injury report. Atakan Akkaynak (knee) and Sam Schreck (groin) are listed as doubtful while defender Tin Jedvaj (thigh) is expected to be back in early November this year.
VFL WOLFSBURG
The Wolves on the other side are winless in last five games but they also have recorded only one loss in that period. Especially successful was the matchup at Allianz Arena against defending champions Bayern Munich when they managed to avoid the loss by securing a 2:2 draw before the final whistle. Still, the Wolfsburg team will have to improve their home soil play as they have three straight draws in front of their own crowd and no wins. The only victory came against Eintracht Frankfurt on the road in round 2 (0:1).
The team currently ranks at No. 12 spot in the league table with the same number of points (7) as HSV that ranks under the relegation line but Wolfsburg has better goal difference. They average 0.86 goals scored and 1.29 goals conceded per match while on the road they average 1.00 goals scored and conceded. 29% of their total matches had over 2.5 goals while 33% of their road games had over 3.5 goals in total. They haven’t yet managed to score a goal in both halves but they’ve managed to concede at least one goal in both halves in one of seven total matches so far. 4-1-2-3 is the scheme that coach Sandro Schwarz mostly uses with Donati, Bell, Diallo and Brosinski in front of goalie Adler. Gbamin, Frei, and Latza mostly operate in the middle of the field while Oztunali, Muto and De Blasis take care of the goal-scoring business. Nevertheless, none of these three guys have yet managed to score a goal as midfielder Daniel Didavi tops the team in scoring with three so far. Arnold Maximilian, Joshua Guilavogui, and Divock Origi have one each in their accounts. Didavi and Guilavogui also top the team in assisting aspect with one each along with Paul-Gorges Ntep and Paul Verhaegh who also collected one each. Passing segment is being dominated by defender Felix Udokhai while Dutch goalkeeper Koen Casteels has 16 saves and one clean sheet game so far.
The summer signing John Anthony Brooks (thigh) should be available in early November while Jeffre Bruma (knee) should be ready in a few weeks. Philip Menzel’s (finger), Sebastian Jung’s (ankle) and Maximilian Arnold’s (stomach) status is unknown while Adelino Vierinha should be available in few days. Gian-Luca Itter (thigh), Mario Gomez (ankle) and Christian Trasch (unknown) are listed as day to day.
Bayer Leverkusen vs. VFL Wolfsburg – Match Prediction
These old foes share a history of above-average scoring games and I don’t see why it would be any different this time. In last 14 games, only one matchup had less than three goals in total (1:1 draw at Bay Arena in 2013 season) while nine of those 14 games had over 3.5 goals in total. Last year a duel at Bay Arena ended with a 3:3 draw while Bayer managed to emerge victorious at Volkswagen Arena (2:1). It will be very hard to predict the winner here but you can’t go wrong if you put your money on over 2.5 goals in total. When it comes to the additional pick the things are a little bit different. By my opinion, one thing is for sure and that is the hunch that this game will not finish with a draw. Normally, I would give the advantage to the home team but as mentioned above, road wins are not strange in showdowns between these two. Nevertheless, I would still go with the home team victory as an additional pick because they looked much more composite in their home games but the things might be changed after this international break. To be honest, stay at over 2.5 goals in total and try to avoid any other plays that include this pair expect if you’re willing to take chance on both teams score.
My pick: Over 3 goals (+108)
Additional Pick: Both teams score YES (-130)
