German Bundesliga
2011-01-28 - Bayer Leverkusen vs Hannover 96
A Sports Betting Pick by Niko
Football ; Germany : Bundesliga
Bay Arena
Friday, 28th January 2011 – kickoff 20:30
Bayer Leverkusen
Bayer Leverkusen are still the only team at the moment that could challenge Borussia Dortmund for the title as they are closest to the leaders trailing eleven points. They would have been much closer to the top spot if they had not dropped so many points at the home matches.
Good news is that last weekend in the team returned and played for half an hour in the match against Borussia M`Gladbach the midfielder Michael Ballack who finally returned to playing after five months out with a knee injury.
Another boost to the defense will be the return of the central defender Manuel Friedrich who had served his yellow card suspension and is back in the starting eleven.
The midfielder Lars Bender has an inflammation in the knee and will not be able to play, as well as Sami Hyypia (outer ligament of the ankle) and Tranquillo Barnetta (medial ligament tear) who are both out indefinitely.
That means that the formation will be changed a bit and instead of three, there will be four midfielders at the pitch and two strikers up front – Patrick Helmes and Stefan Kiessling.
Probable Bayer Leverkusen line-up :
Castro, M. Friedrich, Reinartz, Kadlec ,
Vidal, Ballack, Renato Augusto, Sam,
Helmes, Kiessling
Hannover 96
Hannover 96 lost 1-0 to Schalke 04 in the last round ut they still occupy the third place at the Bundesliag table.
For this match, coach Mirko Slomka can not count on the midfielder Jan Schlaudraff who got injured in the last match against Schalke 04 and has abdominal muscle injury. Also another midfielder, Sergio Pinto missed couple of training sessions during the week with a stomach infection but he is expected to recover on time for this match.
Interestingly, since two rounds ago the first choice goalkeeper Florian Fromlowitz has been replaced by the 21 year old Ron-Robert Zieler, a goalkeeper who has played for various German youth national teams and that had transferred from Manchester United this summer. Despite the last week`s loss he showed quite good performance.
In the attack, the two strikers that are irreplaceable are Didier Ya Konan and Mohammad Abdellaoue.
Probable Hannover 96 line-up :
Cherundolo, Haggui, Pogatetz, C. Schulz,
Schmiedebach, Pinto , Stoppelkamp, Rausch,
Ya Konan, Abdellaoue
The Betting Verdict
The first match between Bayer Leverkusen and Hannover 96 this season had ended in entertaining 2-2 draw. This time i think that Bayer Leverkusen will manage to get a win and keep the pace with Borussia Dortmund at the top.
Bayer Leverkusen had already dropped too many points at their home matches, and Hannover 96 have disposed many weaknesses in the defense in the last match, so i think that experienced team like Bayer Leverkusen will know how to use that in own advantage and get an important win that will keep them further at the second spot at the Bundesliga table.
The Statistics :
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The Pick :
Bayer Leverkusen-Hannover 96 2-1
BEST BETTING TIP :
Take the Home win for Bayer Leverkusen at a price of 1.57 at Eurobet
