My dear Bundesliga fans, I know that you probably cannot wait for the winter season to be over and the spring time to knock on the door so that you can enjoy the beautiful weather outside. With only couple of weeks until the official spring season starts, WE at GetMoreSports.com will do our best to keep you entertained and give you some interesting matches and latest news to follow coming from one of the best soccer leagues in the world – the German Bundesliga. With that being said, our focus for the upcoming weekend will be on three featured games scheduled for Round 24 of the German Bundesliga. So let’s get into it right away:
FRIDAY, March 10th – 1 Featured Match
Bayer Leverkusen 04 vs SV Werder Bremen
3-Way: 1: Bayer Leverkusen -143 Home; X: +338 Draw; 2: SV Werder Bremen +463 Away
Spread: Bayer Leverkusen -0.5 -154; SV Werder Bremen +0.5 +147
Total 3+: Over -101; Under -104
Analysis and Prediction:
The first game that we will take a closer look and give you some betting tips is the opening game of the Round 24 played on Friday between the Bayer Leverkusen 04 who will host the SV Werder Bremen. The hosts will go into this game with a new Manager Tayfun Korkut, who was just appointed as the interim coach after the Leverkusen management decided to split ways with Roger Schmidt on Sunday. According to the latest news coming from the Leverkusen office, Korkut has signed a deal for the remainder of the Bundesliga 2016/2017 season, with the possibility to extend the deal, if the two sides are satisfied with the results. On the other side, Schmidt was fired after struggling to find consistency and losing too many points, home and away. The decisive moment came over the weekend after Die Werkself suffered a 6-2 blow to Borussia Dortmund on the road. Following the loss Schmidt was fired on Sunday and the management announced on Monday that Korkut will take over as an interim coach until the end of the season. Now the management hopes to shake the team spirit a bit in a positive way before a very important home game against the Werder Bremen. It will not be a very easy task for the home team, considering that they have lost their last three matches and that they have not seen a lot of success recently against the Werder Bremen, losing 4 of their last 5 meetings.
The visitors, on the other side will travel to Leverkusen with a high spirit and full of confidence after winning three in a row, two of which came on the road (against Wolfsburg 1:2 and Mainz 05 0:2). Their most recent victory came on Saturday when the Green-Whites hosted Darmstadt at the Weserstadion. Although the visitors had more goal attempts and controlled the ball possession, the hosts lifted by superb performance of Max Kruse went on to record a 2:0 win and take all three points. It was Kruse who scored two goals, both in the second half (75th and 90+2 minute) bringing his team a victory. The Werder Bremen will now look to extend their winning streak when they visit Leverkusen on Friday.
Bayer Leverkusen has already lost 11 games, topping the last years 10 over the entire season. In addition, they have won only 30 points after 23 rounds, which is their lowest count in the last 14 years. Furthermore, they have failed to beat Werder Bremen in their last three meeting at the Bayer Arena (2L, 1D). All of these have led to the appointment of the new manager and considering that the German clubs have a strange habit of recording a positive result after bringing in the new head coach, I am trusting my gut feeling and picking the home team to win in this game.
My Pick: Bayer Leverkusen to win (-143)
SATURDAY, March 11th – 1 Featured Match
SC Freiburg vs TSG 1899 Hoffenheim
3-Way: 1: Freiburg +215 Home; X: +260 Draw; 2: Hoffenheim +150 Away
Spread: Freiburg +0.5 -147; Hoffenheim -0.5 +140
Total 2.5: Over -123; Under +118
Analysis and Prediction:
My Saturday featured matchup will be the duel between the SC Freiburg and the TSG 1899 Hoffenheim. It should be a very interesting game considering that both teams are flying high on the Bundesliga standings. The SC Freiburg is currently holding the 8th spot with 33 points to their name (only 2 points short from the Euro competition spot), while the TSG 1899 Hoffenheim is ranked 4th with a superb 41 points and only 2 points behind the 3rd ranked Borussia Dortmund.
Die Breisgau-Brazilians are going into this matchup after recording a huge 2:1 road win over the past weekend against the 6th ranked FC Eintracht Frankfurt. Over their last 4 games, Freiburg has collected a total of 7 points (2W, 1D, 1 L) with the only loss coming to the Borussia Dortmund (0:3) at home in the Round 22. There is no doubt that Freiburg will be highly motivated against Hoffenheim on Saturday considering that they have not defeated the visitors in their last 6 meetings (4D, 2L). The last time these two teams met was back October 15th when Hoffenheim celebrated a 2:1 home win.
TSG 1899 Hoffenheim will travel to Freiburg after a huge 5:2 win against the bottom ranked Ingolstadt on Saturday. After going 1:1 to the half-time break, the Hoffenheim players shifted gears and went on to score 5 goals in the second half (one of which was in their own net) for a final 5:2 score. Adam Szalai was the man of the match with 2 goals, which now has him counting a total of 5 Bundesliga goals. Hoffenheim has not played as many draws against any other team in the Bundesliga like it did against Freiburg (a total of 7 games ended in a draw between the two teams since Hoffenheim joined the Bundesliga).
Although there are number of picks to be for this game I am going with the number of goals, picking the Over 2.5 goals scored at -123. Over the last 7 head-to-head meeting between the two teams, there have been a total of 30 goals scored, which means that on average there are more than 4 goals scored per game. Also, another pick to consider is that both teams will score at least one goals, considering that both teams have scored at least once in their last 7 meetings.
My Pick: Over 2.5 goals scored (-123)
SUNDAY, March 12th – 1 Featured Match
FC Schalke 04 vs FC Augsburg
3-Way: 1: Schalke -120 Home; X: +275 Draw; 2: Augsburg +459 Away
Spread: Schalke -0.5 -125; Augsburg +0.5 +119
Total 2.5: Over +116; Under -120
Analysis and Prediction:
The final Bundesliga Round 24 match preview for this week is the matchup between the FC Schalke and the FC Augsburg scheduled to be played on Sunday, March 12th at the Veltins-Arena. The home team is hoping to feed off the positive history record when going against the FC Augsburg. Namely, in their 11 official meetings (10 in Bundesliga and 1 Cup game), the FC Schalke collected 5 wins, 5 draws and only 1 loss. With that being said, on Sunday afternoon, the Schalke fans will expect nothing but points.
The Royal Blues showed some signs of improvement recently, going 7 game undefeated in all competitions (1 W and 3 D in Bundesliga, 2 D in Europa League and 1 W in Cup game) prior to suffering 2 straight losses (1 in Bundesliga and 1 in Cup game). Their latest Bundesliga defeat came on Saturday when Schalke visited the very good Borussia Moenchengladbach team and suffered a 4:2 blow at the Borussia-Park. However, the home team has not lost to the FC Augsburg in the 5 total games played at the Veltins-Arena, collecting 4 wins and one draw. The last two meetings between these two teams were decided with a 1:1 draw.
The FC Augsburg is currently holding the 12th spot of the Bundesliga standings, having won a total of 28 points (7W, 7D, 9L), but their hopes are not too high knowing that they are struggling heavily to win points against the Royal Blues, especially on the road, where they have scored only 4 goals and conceded 12. Prior to the Schalke matchup, Augsburg has recorded 2 W, 1 D and 2 L over their last 5 Bundesliga games.
The picture is crystal clear in this matchup and I like the -120 offered for the Schalke to win. The home team has a very good record against the visitors and it will be a huge surprise if the Royal-Blues give up points in this one. Schalke needs all three points to improve their current rankings (ranked 13th with 27 points).
My Pick: FC Schalke to win (-120)
