Paderborn – Hamburg

The visitors to break their October’s losing streak

The centrepiece of the Second Bundesliga matchday will be a clash between two clubs that are among the three favourites for the title. Both teams have played in the Bundesliga in the recent past, and Hamburg's history and traditions are known even to novice football fans. On the other hand, the Hamburg side are regarded as favourites for promotion from year to year, but such predictions are levelled with unenviable consistency each season. Paderborn are a far less glorious club, but their memory in the elite division is fresher, having been relegated in 2019/2020. Bookmakers are now offering Hamburg or Darmstadt 98 the same 3.5 odds for first place at the end of the season. Paderborn are quoted third at 5.5. Paderborn started the current Bundesliga II with a win over Karlsruhe and a defeat in Düsseldorf. For the next month and a half, Kvasnek's side looked like the dominant force in the division, crushing almost every other encounter. The second half of September was a cold shower for the team, with defeats to Greuter Fürth and Darmstadt 98. At the same time, Paderborn's class allowed them to score seven points in the next three rounds and knock Werder out of the German Cup. The home team are really solid, but far from blameless. Hamburg are currently experiencing their toughest stretch since the start of the season. If in the first ten rounds the championship favourite has won eight times, then in October the performance is abysmal. Having started the month with a draw against Kaiserslautern, Hamburg lost the next three official meetings with a total score of 2:10. And in such a short period, Walter's men have suffered a slap in the face in the derby and a humiliating home defeat to Magdeburg, one of the underdogs in the current championship. More than anyone else, Hamburg are crazy motivated to come into their own and get back into the race for promotion. The visitors in the upcoming encounter have won three of the last four meetings with Paderborn, losing only their April match this year. We bet that Hamburg will break the losing streak and pick up at least a point on Sunday.