The Bundesliga signed off for an 11-day international shutdown on the back of a seven-goal epic between Bayern Munich and Hertha Berlin, just the latest high-scoring duel in a competition where the entertainment continues to be sky-high.
Hertha are as fun to watch as anyone – their three matches have yielded a crazy 16 goals, with eight scored and eight conceded – though they weren’t laughing at the manner of their last-gasp 4-3 loss at the champions when they appeared to have a point in the bag.
Sat on three points courtesy of their opening-weekend 4-1 win at Werder Bremen, Hertha can bounce back from their Munich mishap by seeing off Stuttgart at 21/20. Given their record this season, it might to pay to throw caution to the win with the riskier Hertha and over 2.5 goals at 33/20.
Stuttgart’s only win this season was at a very poor Mainz and they’ve lost on their last four visits to the Olympic Stadium.
Dortmund Wary of Red-Hot Kramaric
Goals also look a given in the showdown between Hoffenheim and Dortmund, a clash featuring hotshots Andrej Kramaric and Erling Haaland.
Dortmund’s Haaland has bagged four league goals this season while Hoffenheim ace Kramaric heads the standings on six.
Incredibly he has fired in ten goals in his last five league matches, a sequence which started with all four goals in an astonishing 4-0 win at Dortmund in June. The Croat is 11/2 to open the scoring.
Dortmund will have to find a way of stopping Kramaric and they’ll be acutely aware that Bayern Munich couldn’t do so last month with the former Leicester frontman scoring twice in a shock 4-1 defeat for the champs.
That was one of two wins Hoffenheim have claimed this season, their one loss being a narrow defeat at a decent Eintracht Frankfurt, and on their home patch they hold appeal ay 3/1.
Gladbach to Find Way Through Wolfsburg
One team bucking the trend in the goal-laden Bundesliga are Wolfsburg.
There have been just two 0-0 draws in the season’s opening 27 matches – and the Wolves were involved in both. Their other match, at Freiburg, ended 1-1.
Oliver Glasner has got Wolfsburg well organised but worryingly they have mustered just nine efforts on target in their first three matches, exactly half Gladbach’s total.
Marco Rose’s Gladbach are up and running courtesy of a 3-1 success at Koln and can make it two in a row at odds of 5/6.
Schalke Crisis Not Over Yet
Cash-starved Schalke haven’t won a league game since January and Union Berlin can heap more misery on the Royal Blues on Sunday.
It’s played three, lost three for Schalke with 15 goals shipped and Manuel Baum has been drafted in to provide the turnaround David Wagner couldn’t, though it looks a forlorn cause.
They were trying to get players off the wage bill in the window rather than recruiting and Union Berlin could hardly have picked a better time to be going to Gelsenkirchen. The visitors are a value 31/20 chance.
*All odds correct at time of writing