VfL Bochum - SV Sandhausen

Bochum to pile more misery on Sandhausen

TEAM NEWS

Bochum's Jannik Bandowski and Thomas Eisfeld are working on their comebacks and are unavailable. Sidney Sam saw a red card against Duisburg in round two and is suspended for the next two league games.

Sandhausen’s Tim Knipping, Nejmeddin Daghfous, Karim Guede, Rurik Gislason and Andrew Wooten are all out with different injuries. 

Bochum

Suspended: Sidney Sam

Doubtful: None

Injured/unavailable: Jannik Bandowski (knee), Thomas Eisfeld (unspecified)

Sandhausen

Suspended: None

Doubtful: None 

Injured/unavailable: Tim Knipping (broken foot), Andrew Wooten (pulled muscle), Nejmeddin Daghfous (calf), Karim Guede (knee), Rurik Gislason (unspecified)

MATCH PREVIEW

MAIN PREDICTION: HOME WIN

Having kicked off their season with a 2-0 home loss to promotion candidates Cologne, Robin Dutt’s Bochum followed up that disappointing result with their own 2-0 win on the road against Duisburg in their last league outing two weeks ago. However, their momentum didn't last for long as they fell to an unexpected 1-0 defeat against fourth-tier outfit Weiche Flensburg last weekend, exiting the cup. Bochum certainly had good moments in that game, but never found a way to beat Flensburg's defensive line. Nevertheless, since Dutt's arrival on the sidelines, the team have won seven, drawn four and lost only three of the 14 league matches with him in charge. 

Sandhausen considerably changed their squad during the transfer window, but not in a positive way as they are significantly weaker this time around. SVS could struggle to build on last season’s 11^thplace finish and their first two results this season have been testament to this as Kenan Kocak’s men started with two defeats from two league games. In both losses against Greuther Furth (3-1) and Hamburg (3-0), Sandhausen's defensive work was awful while they seriously need to work on their attack too. However, their 6-0 thrashing of Regional West team Oberhausen in the cup last weekend will have restored their confidence to some extent. 

Sandhausen will be desperate to put some points on the board sooner rather than later, but I can see Bochum piling more misery on Kocak’s team on Friday. My money is going on a Bochum win here.

SECOND PREDICTION: HILO – HIGH 

The last three league meetings between these teams at Vonovia Stadium have seen 3.67 total goals on average and with both teams in need of points, I predict a very open game with a lot of scoring opportunities. With that in mind I predict a high-scoring encounter. 

HEAD TO HEAD

Bochum have met Sandhausen six times at Vonovia Ruhrstadium in Germany's second division, winning three, drawing two and losing only one of those encounters. Moreover, they have scored at least two goals in the last three on home soil.