It’s week three of the Bundesliga and after last week’s shock results will normal service be resumed?
Punters had their fingers well and truly burned in the Bundesliga last weekend with none of last season’s top four winning and, most remarkably of all, both Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund crashed to defeats.
Bayern, crushed 4-1 at Hoffenheim, and Dortmund, 2-0 losers at Augsburg, will be desperate to right those wrongs at home to Hertha Berlin and Freiburg respectively.
It means Hoffenheim go to Frankfurt and Augsburg to Wolfsburg as the only clubs in Germany’s top flight who have made 100 per cent starts.
Union Can Strike Against Mainz
The weekend coupon kicks off with Mainz making the trip to the capital to take on Union.
Mainz have started the season with two losses but it’s the manner of those setbacks which will be causing most concern for their supporters.
Well beaten 3-1 at Leipzig they were then battered 4-1 at home by Stuttgart and had Moussa Niakhate sent off. He sits out the Union encounter.
Union, in contrast, put their late collapse at home to Augsburg behind them by gutsily coming from behind to draw 1-1 at Gladbach. They took four points off Mainz last season, can claim all three at the Alte Forsterei and look the bet at 13/10.
Hoffenheim’s Perfect Start Under Threat at Frankfurt
On Saturday, Dortmund are 20/67 to avenge last week’s shocker against Freiburg and Leipzig are 1/4 to overcome – or should that be overwhelm – a Schalke side who have already shipped 11 goals in just two starts.
Both home teams should get up and will doubtless be the bedrock of a fair few accas, but for a single look instead at Frankfurt at 27/20 at home to pacesetters Hoffenheim.
Andre Silva scored his 10th goal in his last 12 games as Frankfurt won 3-1 at Hertha Berlin, a scoreline they fully deserved. It was a welcome fillip after the shock of being held at home by Arminia Bielefeld the week before.
The Eagles, who did the double over Hoffenheim last season, have lost just one of their last 10 in the league and it’s probably best not to get carried away by Hoffenheim’s admittedly impressive start.
Bremen Should be Wary of Buoyant Bielefeld
As for Bielefeld, the runaway winners of 2.Bundesliga have taken to the top flight like a duck to water with that point at Frankfurt preceding a 1-0 win against Cologne.
Unbeaten in any league game since before last Christmas, Uwe Neuhaus’ men can be given some sort of a chance at Bremen against a Werder side who lacked any consistency last season and did well to stay up.
Their 4-1 drubbing by Hertha was their seventh home loss in their last nine Bundesliga assignments. Bielefeld are quite capable of winning and could be worth a bet at 12/5.