The reassuring margin on the third-last has almost completely eroded. This is mainly thanks to Bochum who, like the famous phoenix, have been able to rise from their own ashes – a week ago Dieter Hecking’s men went to win at Bayern Munich, bringing themselves to within 2 points of the fourth from bottom – but it’s also due to St. Pauli’s long winless streak, having barely picked up two points in the last 6 match days.
It’s no surprise, then, that the newly promoted team can no longer sleep peacefully: in addition to Bochum, Kiel and Heidenheim are also still “alive”, respectively second to last and last in the standings at -5 and -6 from the brown team. In short, they’ll have to work hard to stay in the division: St. Pauli coach Alexander Blessin, who spent a few seasons in Italy as Genoa coach, knows this well. His team risks being sucked into the relegation zone despite having the second best defense in the league: they’ve conceded the same number of goals as Bayer Leverkusen (only leaders Bayern Munich have done better). However, their lack of goals is starting to worry them: St. Pauli scored again against Wolfsburg last Sunday (1-1) after four games in which they had failed to score. This dry spell could end in the relegation battle against Hoffenheim, a team that has only kept a clean sheet once in the Bundesliga since November. The negative period, however, seems to be behind the Sinsheim club now, who thanks to two consecutive away victories against Werder Bremen and Bochum (unbeaten for 360 minutes) have moved up to 6th place, three places from the bottom.
Odds comparison
The “1X” sign is quoted at 1.32 on Goldbet and Lottomatica and at 1.30 on Snai. The “Under 2.5” sign is quoted at 1.75 on Goldbet and Lottomatica and at 1.73 on Snai.
More information about bonuses
If you are a new user, to compare the odds exhaustively it may be useful to also analyze any bonus applied by the same operators to new registrations.
- GOLDBET – Up to €3050 sports and casino with 200% on first deposit sports up to €1000 MORE INFO
- SNAI – 15 euros free + 50% on first deposit up to 30 euros MORE INFO
- LOTTOMATICA – Up to 3050€ sports and casino with 200% on first deposit sports up to 1000€ MORE INFO
The prediction
One of St. Pauli’s six league victories came against Hoffenheim, beaten 2-0 in November. According to the bookmakers, the blue and whites are not favorites this time either, but in the last month they seem to have regained confidence, doing well especially away from home. The conditions are therefore in place for a balanced and hard-fought match, in which the home side should once again take advantage of home advantage after two consecutive home defeats. The total number of goals is likely to be less than three.
The probable line-ups for St. Pauli-Hoffenheim
ST. PAULI (3-4-1-2): Vasilj; Nemeth, Wahl, van der Heyden; Saliakas, Irvine, Smith, Treu; Sinani; Weißhaupt, Saad.
HOFFENHEIM (4-3-1-2): Baumann; Kadeřábek, Akpoguma, Østigård, Gendrey; Bischof, Stach, Becker; Kramarić; Tabaković, Orban.
POSSIBLE RESULT: 1-1