Karlsruhe – Paderborn

The mid-table sides are going to play some productive football

In the past two seasons, Karlsruhe and Paderborn have finished at or near the middle of the standings. The former had a winning streak from time to time, but never reached the coveted top three. Paderborn, after a brief stint in the Bundesliga, returned to the second division and for the first time in three seasons came close to the top spot in the current competition. The team seemed to be playing at the level of the elite division, but after the eighth round, Paderborn started to go haywire, which affected their position in the standings. Bookmakers did not have a clear favourite, with the odds tilting minimally in favour of the visitors. Karlsruhe started the current season with two defeats, which were replaced by a four-match succession of successful matches. In them, the team scored ten points out of a possible twelve. With such "swings" Karlsruhe continued season, alternating successful mini-series with failures. Another thing is that from mid-October to mid-November the team had a disastrous stretch during which they picked up just one point in seven official meetings. And the draw against St Pauli brought Karlsruhe more disappointment than satisfaction. Back then, Eichner's side were 2-0, 3-1 and 4-3 up throughout the game, but they blew the final whistle to make it 4-4. Paderborn broke the first half of the season in two. In the first eight rounds, the team had 19 points from a possible 24, which led to their sole lead in the Second Bundesliga. However, since the ninth round, Paderborn started to lose, and from the end of October until the break associated with the World Cup in Qatar, the club stopped picking up points at all, losing four times in a row. And so it appears that in the upcoming meeting at the BB Bank Stadium, the opponents will determine not who is better but who is worse at the moment. Karlsruhe and Paderborn have played five games against each other in the last three championships, with Paderborn winning twice, drawing twice and Karlsruhe winning once. Separately, it should be noted that the average efficiency of these matches was four goals per game, and only one encounter ended with a low score. We'll bet that the opponents will score at least three times between them.