FC Nurnberg v Mainz
Football ; Germany : Bundesliga
Easy Credit Stadion
Sunday, 24th April 2011 – kickoff 17:30

FC Nurnberg

FC Nurnberg are flying high in the league and with a win in this match they can get to the fifth place, which is last that leads into Europa League.

Last weekend FC Nurnberg had showed another convincing performance and won 2-0 at Kaiserslautern, which was their second game in a row to stay unbeaten, and in the week before that they drew 1-1 against Bayern Munich.

At their home ground, FC Nurnberg are ranked fifth in the Bundesliga with nine wins, one draw and five losses, and in the last six home matches, FC Nurnberg have been superb with four wins (against St.Pauli, Eintracht Frankfurt, Bayer Leverkusen and Hamburger SV), one draw (against Bayern Munich) and just one loss (against Werder Bremen).

Coach Dieter Hecking will play his team in standard 4-1-4-1 formation with Julian Schieber as striker (seven goals, five assists), but biggest strength of this young team is that they play as one unit and there are other players who score lots of goals although they are not natural strikers like Ilkay Gundogan, who had scored five goals for his team, and latest reports are that he will probably join Borussia Dortmund or Hamburger SV at the end of this season, and the fast winger Christian Eigler who is best team striker with eight goals behind his name this season.

Probable FC Nurnberg line-up :
R. Schafer,
Chandler, Wollscheid, Wolf, Pinola,
Simons,
Hegeler, Cohen, Ekici, Eigler,
Schieber

Mainz

Mainz had barely managed a late win against Borussia M`Gladbach last weekend and it is obvious that their form is in decline in the last couple of months.

Interestingly, Mainz are below average team when playing at home, but at away grounds they are ranked third in the Bundesliga, just behind Borussia Dortmund and Bayer Leverkusen, and have nine wins, one draw and five losses which is exact statistics as FC Nurnberg`s home form this season.

During the last week, the Austrian midfielder Andreas Ivanschitz had returned to trainings after missing the last match due to a stomach flu, but his usage in this match is questionable. He had played in sixteen matches so far for Mainz and had scored two goals and made two assists.

Marcel Risse had suffered a thigh injury and will miss this match as well, but the team captain and central defender Nikolce Noveski is back in the starting line up after serving his one match suspension for a red card which he had picked up against Hannover 96 couple of weeks ago.

Coach Thomas Tuchel will use standard 4-3-1-2 formation with Lewis Holtby (three goals, six assists) playing as a playmaker behind the strikers Sami Allagui (nine goals, two assists) and Andre Schurrle (thirteen goals, four assists).

Probable Mainz line-up :
Wetklo,
Bungert, Svensson, Noveski, Fuchs,
Polanski, Kirchhoff, Soto,
Holtby,
Allagui, Schurrle

The Betting Verdict

The first match between FC Nurnberg and Mainz this season had ended in high 3-0 win for Mainz. The overall record is also on Mainz side as they have five wins, one draw and three losses against FC Nurnberg.

This is a direct duel for the Europa League spot and i expect it to be a tight one. Personally, i fancy FC Nurnberg to get the win, but Mainz have been brilliant this season when playing away, so that is a tough call.

FC Nurnberg usually play an attacking football, but for this match they will probably get more defensive approach and patiently wait for a chance to score. Mainz are very dangerous through counter attacks, so they can easily punish FC Nurnberg if they come attacking from the start.

I think that this will be a close encounter and that we will not see too many goals here, and if there is a winner it would be by a goal or so, so it think that the best option is to bet on under 2.5 goals to be scored in this match.

The Statistics :

The Pick :

FC Nurnberg-Mainz 1-0 (or 1-1)

FIXED ODDS BETTING :

Take Under 2.5 goals to be scored in this match