Hamburger SV - FC St. Pauli

Hamburg-Derby in favour for the hosts

TEAM NEWS

Christian Titz’s Hamburg are at full strength ahead of this clash at Volkspark Stadium. Only the long-term injured Gideon Jung, Jairo Samperio and Kyriakos Papadopoulos are absent.

St. Pauli's Sami Allagui, Marc Hornschuh and Luca-Milan Zander are all injured and will not make the trip to Ingolstadt on Friday.

Hamburg

Suspended: None

Doubtful: None

Injured/unavailable: Kyriakos Papadopoulos, Gideon Jung, Jairo Samperio (all knee)

St. Pauli

Suspended: None

Doubtful: None

Injured/unavailable: Sami Allagui (broken rib), Marc Hornschuh (spinal disc), Luca Zander (ankle)

MATCH PREVIEW

MAIN PREDICTION: HOME WIN

Hamburg were on a tremendous run of form before their heavy defeat against Jahn Regensburg on Sunday. Prior to losing 5-0 at Volkspark-Stadium, HSV had secured successive wins over Sandhausen, Bielefeld, Heidenheim and Dresden (conceding just two) to move on top in the second tier. Meanwhile, Sunday’s loss against the Jahn was their second home defeat of the season.

Despite an excellent start with saw them pick up six points from their first two league games, St. Pauli have found it tough going in recent weeks. Last Friday, St. Pauli stopped their negative run with a 1-0 victory to Ingolstadt at Audi-Sportpark and have now collected just six points from the last 15 on offer. 

Before losing at Volkspark-Stadium on Sunday, Hamburg were on fire with four victories in a row. I’m backing them to bounce back with an important home win in derby against St. Pauli.

SECOND PREDICTION: FIRST TEAM TO SCORE - HAMBURG

St. Pauli have been the first team to concede in two of their last three road trips while Hamburg scored first in two of their last three home games so far this season. They should be the first to find the net here again.

HEAD TO HEAD

The teams have so far never played each other in 2.Bundesliga but they have met each other at top flight, with Hamburg winning four, drawing two and losing two of their eight home league matches against St. Pauli.