Vfb Stuttgart v Bayer Leverkusen
Football : Germany : Bundesliga
Mercedes-Benz Arena
Saturday, 17th April 2010 – kickoff 15:30

Vfb Stuttgart

Vfb Stuttgart won 1-0 away against Hertha Berlin last week and got closer to the top five teams at the table. In the remaining four fixtures, the team will have a chance to leap over Hamburger SV at the Bundesliga table and lock their European place. Stuttgart are positioned seventh with 47 points and are just one point behind the place that leads in the Europa league next season.

Vfb Stuttgart have collected the most points in the Bundesliga in the second part of the season (31 points) and they are currently on a great run of four straight wins. Interesting fact is that since the coach Christian Gross took over this team this season Vfb Stuttgart have suffered only one home defeat (1-2 against Hamburger SV).

Coach Christian Gross can be satisfied in front of this match as he will have his full squad available at his disposal. Good news is the return of Sami Kheidra and Aliaksandr Hleb to team trainings during last week, but probably they will not play from the start, and will wait their chance from the bench.

Last week the striker Cacau came in from the bench and showed a very good performance, but probably the coach will use him once again as a substitute. In the attack Pogrebnyak will be partnered with Ciprian Marica.

Probable Vfb Stuttgart line-up :
Lehmann,
Boulahrouz, Tasci, Delpierre, Molinaro,
Träsch, Kuzmanovic, Gebhart, Hilbert,
Marica, Pogrebnyak

Bayer Leverkusen

Bayer Leverkusen drew 1-1 with Bayern Munich last weekend and their main goal in the last four rounds will be to keep their third place at the table that leads into Champions league qualification. In the last four matches Bayer Leverkusen have suffered three straight defeats and have one draw. They have also a negative run losing the last three away matches.

The team needs to improve quickly as they have only two and three point advantage over the teams that are fourth and fifth at the Bundesliga table. The title race might be over for them but the fight for the third place will be at full swing until the last round.

Renato Augusto is still missing from the squad due to hamstring injury and Daniel Schwaab is still serving a red card suspension. Eren Derdiyok and Steffan Kiessling will be partnered in the attack and Arturo Vidal and Toni Kroos will be at the wings.

Probable Bayer Leverkusen line-up :
Adler,
Castro, M. Friedrich, Hyypiä, Kadlec,
Vidal, Reinartz, Barnetta, Kroos,
Kiessling, Derdiyok

The Betting Verdict

The first match between these teams this season ended in convincing 4-0 victory for Bayer Leverkusen and in that match Steffan Kiessling scored his first hat-trick.

The overall record between these teams is almost balanced as Vfb Stuttgart have won 21 times against their opponents, lost 24 matches and 16 matches have ended in a draw. At their home ground in Stuttgart, Vfb Stuttgart have 15 wins, 11 losses and four draws against Bayer Leverkusen. Most recently, Bayer Leverkusen have won three of the last four matches against Vfb Stuttgart.

This will be a tricky fixture to bet on a straight winner as it is still questionable whether Bayer Leverkusen are finally out of their bad form. Vfb Stuttgart are Bundesliga leaders with the results in the second part of the season and both teams` imperative is to get as many points possible in the last four rounds.

I consider Vfb Stuttgart as a team that is in much better form at the moment and play nice football, but Bayer Leverkusen have lost all their credits and this is a match in which they must get something out of in order to keep their third place.

Both teams tend to play offensive football, creating many chances and i think that we will see a few goals here as both teams will have to take risks in order to get points. Instead on betting on match winner i would go with betting on goals here.

The Statistics :

The Pick :

Vfb Stuttgart 2-2 Bayer Leverkusen

FIXED ODDS BETTING :

Take over 2.5 goals to be scored