Stuttgart-Hamburg is the first leg of the Bundesliga promotion-relegation play-off and is played on Thursday at 20:45: predictions.
The picture of the participating clubs in the 2023-24 Bundesliga is almost complete. All that remains is to decide on the last place: as every year, the third-last team in the top division and the third-placed team in the Bundesliga compete for it. On the one side are Stuttgart and on the other Hamburg, the nobility of German football, who were eliminated in last year’s promotion-relegation play-off.
It’s incredible what happened last Sunday to the Hanseatic side, who were still dealt a fatal blow in added time. A year ago they were beaten in the return leg of the play-off by Hertha Berlin, this time the mockery came on the final day of the championship. At the referee’s final whistle the Hamburg fans had even invaded the Sandhausen stadium pitch to celebrate promotion together with the players. Not least because Heidenheim, the team with whom Hamburg were competing for second place, despite being masters of their own destiny, were losing 2-1 until minute 92 of the match against Regensburg. But in the space of five minutes here was the resounding reversal: Heidenheim came back, dismaying the Dinasaurier supporters, forced to go through this singular playoff again to regain that Bundesliga lost for the first time five years ago. Stuttgart, on the other hand, paid dearly for the draw in the last round with the Hoffenheim of former coach Pellegrino Matarazzo, who was exonerated in autumn.
Sebastian Hoeness’s men would have overtaken Augsburg with a victory and saved themselves directly, but they did not go beyond a 1-1 draw against a team that no longer had any objective, having won salvation in the previous round. The first leg of the play-off will be played as always at the home of the third-last in the Bundesliga but, as far as the regulations are concerned, there is no longer the away goals rule: in the event of a draw at the end of the double-leg there will be extra time and (possibly) penalties.
Vuskovic of Hamburg
The Prediction
Only three times in the history of this play-off has a team from the Zweite Liga managed to get the better of one from the Bundesliga. And Stuttgart, in spite of themselves, are among them: four years ago they got the worst of Union Berlin. Hoeness’s men, in any case, ended the season on an upward trend, thanks to the former Hoffenheim coach who took over from Labbadia in the last two months of the championship: in eight matches they only suffered one defeat. Stuttgart are therefore favourites over Hamburg, who, as in recent seasons, collapsed at the most beautiful moment. Both are likely to score.
Stuttgart-Hamburg line-up odds
- STOCCARDA (3-4-3): Bredlow; Mavropanos, Anton, Ito; Vagnoman, Karazor, Endo, Sosa; Tomas, Guirassy, Führich.
- AMBURG (4-3-3): Heuer Fernandes; Heyer, David, Schonlau, Muheim; Meffert, Kittel, Reis; Jatta, Glatzel, Dompe.
POSSIBLE RESULT: 2-1
