30 Sept 2021
Wolfsburg v Monchengladbach
Wolfsburg soared to the top of the table with four wins from their opening four fixtures, though a draw and defeat in their last two has seen them drop to third. They still remain unbeaten at home across all competitions though. In fact, they’ve only lost three of their last 24 competitive home matches over the last year, with two of those coming against Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund, so they won’t roll over easily here.
It’s been a slow start to the campaign for Gladbach who picked up just one point from their opening three matches, though a confidence boosting victory over Dortmund last time out was just what they needed to kick start their season.
Marcus Thuram remains out for the visitors, along with Mamadou Doucoure and that has been their main issue so far this season. Since the beginning of last season, Gladbach’s output increases 44% when Thuram starts the game, and we’d be surprised if they were to run riot here against a side who have conceded just twice in four home games this season. All four of those games have seen under 2.5 goals land, with Wolfsburg’s output also coming into question, and that outcome seems very likely again between two evenly matched sides.
PREDICTION:
UNDER 2.5 GOALS
Dortmund v Augsburg
We’d expect a result either way for this one with Dortmund not experiencing a single draw in any of their last 22 matches. They currently sit fourth in the table after four wins from their opening six games with those defeats coming against Monchengladbach and an unbeaten Freiburg side. In truth if BVB are at all on their game and take their chances then Augsburg won’t prove too much of a challenge.
The Bavarian side have won just one of their six outings so far, and away from home they haven’t nearly been good enough. They’ve lost seven of their last nine winless such matches at an aggregate score of 17-4, drawing a blank in six of those games and against a Dortmund side that have proven to be free scoring in the past, you fear the worst for the visitors. Amazingly, the hosts have now scored in 56 of their last 58 outings, a run that stretches back to a 2-0 away defeat to Augsburg themselves over a year ago. They’ve scored in each of their last 29 home games too across all competitions, scoring three or more in each of their last five such league games.
PREDICTION:
DORTMUND -1 HANDICAP
Bayern Munich v Frankfurt
After a tame draw with Gladbach in their opening fixture, it’s been business as usual for Bayern who now under the tutelage of Julian Nagelsmann have won nine consecutive games, scoring at least three times in each and averaging five per game. They look like a strong defensive unit too, conceding just twice across their last seven, and it’s very difficult to see anything other than a convincing win here.
Frankfurt remain winless over this campaign and have now drawn five consecutive matches in the league. They started their season off with a shock defeat to Waldhof Mannheim in the DFB Pokal and are yet to fully recover from that. A 5-2 defeat to Borussia Dortmund on the opening weekend of the league season is the only time they’ve managed to score more than once in all competitions, and they struggled to overcome Antwerp on Wednesday night, relying on a 91st minute penalty to claim maximum points which doesn’t bode well against the Champions.
Benjamin Pavard will miss out here with suspension, though in truth their squad depth provides more than enough cover for the Frenchman, and it would be a genuine shock not to see a convincing home win here.
PREDICTION:
BAYERN MUNICH -2 HANDICAP
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