Sandhausen – Hanover 96

The hosts will put up resistance and provoke an entertaining match

After a quarter of a season in the Second Bundesliga, the opponents at the Hardtwaldstadion occupy places in different parts of the standings. Despite Hannover's current sixth place in the league, bookmakers are offering odds of 7.0 on them and Darmstadt 98 to win the season. This is a 3-4 position on the list of contenders after Hamburg and Paderborn. In turn, analysts rate Zandhausen's chances as last along with Magdeburg and Braunschweig. For the face-off between the opponents, scheduled to take place on the field of the outsider, bookmakers offered almost equal odds, with a slight tilt towards the visitors. Zandhausen went from mid-July to mid-August on a home-win-away-loss schedule in the league. That was until they were visited by Nuremberg, who scored more goals against Dreves. Zandhausen are coming into the next round with a five-match unbeaten streak under their belt, with three defeats and two draws. Last round, Schwartz's side drew 1-1 in Hamburg against St. Pauli. Despite Zandhausen's dim prospects this season, the club have failed to score in only three games at their 2022 arena. Hannover started the current league with a level of play far from that of one of the favorites. In their opening three games, the ninety-sixers lost to Kaiserslautern and Paderborn, scoring only one point against St Pauli. Since mid-August, the team began to show a qualitatively different level. In the last five rounds, the club scored 13 points from a possible 15. It is worth noting that the average performance in games involving Hannover is now exactly three goals per game. Both September fixtures ended in goals-under totals for the visitors to the upcoming match. Since 2020, the opponents have played five games against each other, none of which have contained fewer than three goals. On four occasions out of five, it was Zandhausen who won, with Hannover winning on one occasion. These statistics and the current balance of power suggest that the match will contain at least three goals.