Montag, 8. April 2019

Hamburger SV - FC Magdeburg

Hamburg to get back on track on home soil

TEAM NEWS
Hamburg's Jairo Samperio, Hwang Hee chan, Aaron Hunt and Stephan Ambrosius are out.

Magdeburg boss Michael Oenning will not be able to count on Rico Preissinger and Christian Beck who remain out injured.

Hamburg
Suspended: None
Doubtful: None
Injured/unavailable: Jairo Samperio, Stephan Ambrosius (both knee); Hwang Hee chan (tendon), Aaron Hunt (thigh)

Magdeburg
Suspended:
Doubtful: None
Injured/unavailable: Rico Preissinger (knee), Christian Beck (cheekbone)

MATCH PREVIEW
MAIN PREDICTION: HOME WIN
Hamburg managed to secure only a 0-0 draw at Vonovia Stadium against mid-table side Bochum last weekend. Hannes Wolf’s boys have had a rough time of late, winning just two of their last six league matches (two draws, two defeats), a run which has seen them drop from first to second place. The side are now trailing leaders Cologne by three points. Since beating St. Pauli 4-0 in their local derby away from home last month, Hamburg have secured only a point from their last two league fixtures, but two goals from Pierre-Michel Lasogga were enough to give them a 2-0 win over Paderborn in the quarter-final of the German cup in midweek, taking them into the semi-final.

Lowly Magdeburg have not won a league game since a 3-1 victory away at Bielefeld in mid-February, losing two and drawing three of their last five games in the German second tier. After back-to-back defeats, Magdeburg have struck back with two league draws against Dresden away (1-1) and Heidenheim at home (0-0), but Michael Oenning’s team still find themselves in the bottom three. Sitting in 16th place, they are two points adrift of safety.

Hamburg will want to get back on track as soon as possible after losing a lot of ground to leaders Cologne over the past few weeks. This will not be an easy league game for the hosts given Magdeburg’s urgent situation, but they should just edge it.

SECOND PREDICTION: FIRST TEAM TO SCORE - HAMBURG
Hamburg have won seven times in the league at Volkspark Stadium this season, opening the scoring in six of those. Back the hosts to draw first blood in this clash.

HEAD TO HEAD
Hamburg won the reverse league fixture 1-0 at MDCC Arena back in October, which has been the only league meeting between the teams.

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