German Bundesliga
2011-05-07 - Bayer Leverkusen vs Hamburger SV
A Sports Betting Pick by Niko
Football ; Germany : Bundesliga
Bay Arena
Saturday, 07th May 2011- kickoff 15:30
Bayer Leverkusen
Bayer Leverkusen will have an emotional last home match of the season as this is going to be a last home match in charge of the coach Jupp Heynckes who will join Bayern Munich after the season is over and also last home match for the central defender Sami Hyypia who will retire from playing football next weekend.
Coach Heynckes had stated that he would do anything he can to motivate his players to win in the remaining two matches, so the fans will be satisfied with this outstanding season for Bayer Leverkusen, in which they simply just could not compete with Borussia Dortmund at the top who played football from another level this season.
Bayer Leverkusen are also looking into the next season and first step they did is that they had signed a very promising 19 year old central defender Omer Toprak from SC Freiburg, who had signed a five year contract starting from the next season.
Good team news is that there are no injured or suspended players in the team, so Bayer Leverkusen will play in its strongest line up with Stefan Kiessling (six goals scored) as top striker, Sidney Sam (seven goals, three assists) and Renato Augusto(seven goals, two assists) at the wings and Michael Ballack in the middle.
Probable Bayer Leverkusen line-up :
Castro, Schwaab, Hyypia, Kadlec,
Vidal, Rolfes,
Sam, Ballack, Renato Augusto,
Kiessling
Hamburger SV
This has been one of poorest seasons that Hamburger SV have ever had, and they had failed to live up to the expectations and finish on a place that leads at least in the Europa League, despite having great squad packed with so many quality players.
HSV are placed eighth at the table with 43 points and they will finish this season around mid table, so this team is already making plans for the next season when they have to improve a lot in order to bring European football in Hamburg which they really need.
In front of this match, coach Michael Oenning is facing some problems in selecting his squad as few important first team players are out.
The midfielder Ze Roberto had picked up his fifth yellow card against SC Freiburg and needs to sit out this match. Also the defender Joris Mathijsen is out through injury, and probably the biggest blow will be the absence of the top two Hamburger SV strikers Mladen Petric (eleven goals) who is sidelined with groin injury and Ruud van Nistelrooy (seven goals) who is out of action with a torn muscle.
Probable Hamburger SV line-up :
Diekmeier, Kacar, Westermann, Aogo,
Jarolim, Trochowski, Pitroipa, Elia,
Ben-Hatira, Guerrero
The Betting Verdict
The first match between these teams this season had ended in 4-2 away win for Bayer Leverkusen and interestingly none of the previous 31 Bundesliga matches between HSV and Bayer Leverkusen had ended goalless.
Bayer Leverkusen will have the advantage in this match as they have full squad available, unlike HSV, and they also play their last home match of the season in which they have to make up before their fans for the last weeks loss to relegation strugglers FC Koln. My opinion is that this match will end in relatively comfortable home win for Bayer Leverkusen.
The Statistics :
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The Pick :
Bayer Leverkusen 2-0 Hamburger SV
