Hamburg vs Hannover Prediction, Betting Tips & Preview

Preview

Haydn Cunningham Oct 22, 2015 @ 02:49 pm

Hamburg secured a win that pushed them further away from the relegation zone and cemented Hoffenheim deeper into it with a late 1-0 win. Hannover picked up 7 points from 3 games but were back to losing ways after defeat at home to Eintracht Frankfurt.

How crucial could Hamburg look back at Pierre-Michel Lasogga’s strike against Hoffenheim that sealed a 1-0 win be? Only time will tell but Lasogga’s 4^th goal of the season sent the travelling Hamburg supporters into raptures. Rene Adler kept a 2^nd consecutive clean sheet but wasn’t troubled on too many occasions as 10-men Hoffenheim were extremely poor. Until Lasogga’s goal, it looked like it was going to be 4 league games in a row that Hamburg hadn’t found the back of the net but not only did they find a winner, it was a first goal from open play since Round 4 of the Bundesliga. The victory did come at a cost as Albin Ekdal suffered a serious ankle injury which will set him back 3-4 months. Hamburg will be content with how they’ve started the season with 14 points after 10 games and it could’ve been so much different had an extra time goal against Karlsruher SC in the relegation play-off last year kept them in the Bundesliga by the skin of their teeth. 

Ron-Robert Zieler has been in inspired form for Hannover and played a massive part in Hannover’s back-to-back clean sheets against Werder Bremen and Koln which earned 1-0 victories. He equalled a club record by making his 152^nd consecutive appearance for Hannover but he couldn’t prevent Hannover suffering a 6^th defeat of the season. Michael Frontzeck won’t be too disheartened by the performance despite Hannover also taking the lead against Frankfurt. Hannover still sit just outside the relegation places after occupying 1 of the positions for the last 2 months.

The home side in this fixture has won the past 7 times and based on league standings, Hamburg should look to increase the gap over Hannover. Both sides have struggled in front of goal with Pierre-Michel Lasogga having the goal scoring burden on his shoulders as he’s scored just under 50% of Hamburg’s league goals. Hannover look to run out of ideas in the final 3^rd and unless Hiroshi Kiyotake produces a bit of magic, his team mates lack any creative spark. That is backed up by Hannover lying 2^nd bottom in terms of shots on goal this season (97) with over half of them coming from range (54).

Albin Ekdal will be a blow for Hamburg as the midfielder signed from Serie A side Cagliari has been a key figure this season. Bruno Labbadia will be casting an eye on the growing number of injuries he’s had to contend with but Marcelo Diaz and Nicolai Muller both featured against Hoffenheim after returning from injury.

Hamburg

Stats: W-4 L-4 D-2

Recent Form - WLLWW

Hannover

Stats: W-2 L-6 D-2

Recent Form - LWWDL

Head-to-head record:

Possible Line-ups

Hamburg (4-2-3-1) – Adler, Diekmeier, Djourou, Cleber, Ostrzolek, Schipplock, Holtby, Muller, Gregoritsch, Ilicevic, Lasogga

Hannover (4-2-3-1) – Zieler, Sakai, Marcelo, Schulz, Albornoz, Sane, Schmiedebach, Andreasen, Kiyotake, Klaus, Sobiech.

Injury List/Suspended Players

Hamburg – Ekdal (inj), Olic (inj), Hunt (inj), Spahic (inj), Kacar (inj), Hirzel (inj)
Hannover – Prib (inj), Benschop (inj)

League Positions