Hamburg – Paderborn

In the central match of the tour, the visitors will put up a good fight against the rivals

Hamburg approach the match in the fourth round of the second Bundesliga in a relatively poor state. For the fifth season, the team are perennial favourites for promotion, but year in and year out, they lose out to their rivals at the end of the draw. Hamburg have finished fourth three times in that period, and third once more. Tim Walter's side have spent a good deal of time in second place in the current league, but were relegated in the last rounds by the modest but ambitious Heidenheim. Hamburg need to win all four final rounds to qualify for direct promotion. Otherwise, Heidenheim and Darmstadt 98 are unlikely to give them a chance. Paderborn will come to the Volksparkstadion with a unique opportunity to fight for third place. Should they win Friday's encounter, the visitors will come within three points of the hosts in the standings with three rounds to go. Bookmakers have identified Tim Walter's side as the favourites, with a win priced at 1.94. Hamburg returned from the autumn-winter break in fine form, but experienced their peak of form in February when they drew away with Heidenheim and Darmstadt 98, and beat other opponents in home games. Walter's team problems began in mid-March when they lost the game against Karlsruhe. After that encounter, Hamburg managed to win only twice in six rounds. It would seem that the turning point in the team's downward playing form should have been a derby win against St Pauli, but the following match against modest Magdeburg was already the favourite to lose. Paderborn spent the initial part of the Bundesliga II draw as leaders. However, after the seventh round, the team lost their form and spent the subsequent period of the championship in the "second tier". Last week's win over Braunschweig allowed Paderborn to move into fourth place and come within six points of third place, held by Hamburg. This positioning of the teams increases the value of the upcoming game to the max. The last three meetings between Hamburg and Paderborn ended in favour of the visiting teams. There is a chance of success for the visitors in the upcoming match as well.