Samstag, 16. Februar 2019

FC Heidenheim - Hamburger SV

All square at Voith Arena

TEAM NEWS
Heidenheim will be without the injured right winger Robert Leipertz.

Hamburg's Jairo Samperio, Kyriakos Papadopoulos, Douglas Santos, Stephan Ambrosius, Aaron Hunt and Hwang Hee chan are still absent while captain Gotoku Sakai is suspended.

Heidenheim
Suspended: None
Doubtful: None
Injured/unavailable: Robert Leipertz (tendon)

Hamburg
Suspended: Gotoki Sakai
Doubtful: None
Injured/unavailable: Kyriakos Papadopoulos, Jairo Samperio, Stephan Ambrosius (all knee); Aaron Hunt (calf), Hwang Hee chan (hip), Douglas Santos (thigh)

MATCH PREVIEW
MAIN PREDICTION: DRAW 
Heidenheim have been going great guns lately, winning eight, drawing five and losing only one of their last 14 league matches. The team ran riot at Bollenfalltor last weekend, with in-form Robert Glatzel scoring both goals in their 2-1 win away at Darmstadt. Heidenheim have taken 20 points at Voith Arena and 17 points away from home so far. They are in fourth place, level on points with Union Berlin in third and only six points behind leaders Hamburg.

Hamburg left it late to beat Dresden at Volkspark Stadium last week, with captain Lewis Holtby scoring in the 84th minute to give Hannes Wolf’s men a 1-0 win. It was the German midfielder’s fourth goal this season. The club have hit a real purple patch of form of late, winning nine, drawing four and losing only two of their last 15 league matches, but they are coming off back-to-back defeats away from home, having lost 3-1 to Holstein Kiel and 2-0 to Bielefeld. Despite their recent slump on the road, they are still topping the table with a four-point lead over Cologne.

Even though they registered two disappointing results on their travels, Hamburg have the best record away from home in Germany’s second tier, winning seven, drawing one and losing two of their ten away league matches. However, Heidenheim are one of the best home teams in the league and on fire. With that in mind, I expect it to be a very closely contested league match which will end all square at Voith Arena.

SECOND PREDICTION: FIRST HALF HAD - DRAW
Nearly half (ten) of Hamburg’s 21 league matches so far have been level at half time. Interestingly, they aren’t particularly efficient up front in the first 45 minutes, having scored only 11 first-half goals, fewer than ten other teams, but they have also only conceded ten goals before the interval, the joint second best record in the league. Heidenheim and Hamburg were level at half time in their only other league meeting so far, back in September, and I think we will see a repeat of that here.

HEAD TO HEAD
The teams have met only once in Germany’s second tier in the past decade. Back in September, Hamburg beat Heidenheim 3-2 at Volkspark Stadium.

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