Big three points for HSV in Sandhausen
TEAM NEWS
Sandhausen’s Tim Knipping, Nejmeddin Daghfous, Korbinian Vollmann, Karim Guede and Andrew Wooten are all out with different injuries.
Christian Titz’s Hamburg are at full strength ahead of this clash at Hardtwald Stadium. Only the long-term injured Gideon Jung, Arianit Ferati and Kyriakos Papadopoulos are absentees while Aron Hunt faces a calf injury and is unavailable too.
Sandhausen
Suspended: None
Doubtful: None
Injured/unavailable: Tim Knipping (broken foot), Andrew Wooten (pulled muscle), Nejmeddin Daghfous (calf), Korbinian Vollmann (muscle), Karim Guede (knee)
Hamburg
Suspended: None
Doubtful: None
Injured/unavailable: Kyriakos Papadopoulos, Gideon Jung (both knee); Arianit Ferati (ligaments), Aron Hunt (calf)
MATCH PREVIEW
MAIN PREDICTION: AWAY WIN
Sandhausen continued their disappointing start to the season last Saturday as they lost 3-1 away to Greuther Furth. Philipp Klingmann scored the only goal for the team in a match with few chances for either side. Although Sandhausen took the first lead early in the second half they lacked the clinical edge they had demonstrated in some of their games last season – however, overall they are known for scoring not too many goals, notching just over one on average last season. It is not often they concede more than two goals though – only once last season – and with their scoring weakness in mind it is important they work on their defensive strategy to avoid a repeat of last weekend's performance whilst trying to improve their attack.
Hamburg started life in Germany's second division with a 3-0 home loss to Holstein Kiel last Friday. Neither team managed to take the lead in the first half but Holstein opened the scoring ten minutes after the interval with an excellent shot outside the box from Jonas Meffert. Hamburg failed to threaten offensively and two more goals followed. The loss points to a crisis at the historic Bundesliga club, who had almost no shots on goal. Coach Christian Titz and his men are in desperate need of results as they are targeting a return to the top flight at the first time of asking, but they had the joint second worst points tally on the road in the 1. Bundesliga last season and that doesn't inspire confidence.
However, although they were clearly not at their best last weekend, Hamburg have a newly-built team and it might simply be a case of the side needing a little time to gel and to get used to the second division. The visitors do have the better squad in this fixture and I think they will find their goalscoring touch and register an away win.
SECOND PREDICTION: CORRECT SCORE – 1-2
Three of Hamburg’s five pre-season wins have come by a one-goal margin with two of them ending 2-1 in their favour. Sandhausen conceded two or more goals in all of their last six league defeats, scoring five goals in those games. I like the look of a 2-1 win for the visitors here.
HEAD TO HEAD
These teams will meet for the first time this weekend.
Keine Kommentare:
Kommentar veröffentlichen