Osnabrueck – Karlsruhe

The visitors will be closer to victory in the first round due to experience and played line-up

Osnabrück is one of the "eternal" travellers between the Second Bundesliga and the Third League, not going beyond these limits for decades. In the past four seasons, the team has played twice in Germany's second division and twice in the third. Interestingly, the Second Bundesliga is an unfriendly environment for Osnabrück. Not once in the last twenty years this club has not occupied here the final place above twelfth, in four cases out of six departing in the first season. For this reason, bookmakers rate Osnabrück's chances of winning the title this season as third from bottom. Another visit to the Second Bundesliga, Tobias Schweinsteiger's wards earned a hard fought victory against a whole group of teams. Osnabrück finished third ahead of Veen by only one goal on goal difference. The third place allowed the team to move directly into the second division due to the inability to move up Freiburg II, who finished in second place. Karlsruhe, unlike the opponent on the first round, returned to the Second Bundesliga at the end of the 2018/2019 season and immediately secured a foothold in the division. The club is not characterised by stability, changing season after season from the second half of the standings to the first and vice versa. In the last championship Karlsruhe finished seventh, losing one more match than won. Bookmakers see the guests as the mid-table side of the new season and the favourite for the upcoming meeting with odds of 2.32 on a win. On the transfer market Osnabrück was active quite seriously. The team signed a large number of free agents, and also took on loan quite a few quality players from Union Berlin and Holstein Kiel. For example, Hansa veteran John Verhoek, who scored a lot of goals for the Mariners last year, came into the attack. Another thing is that it is extremely difficult to gather 15 new players instead of the old ones in one team. Osnabrück tried to play the squad in six friendlies played in just twenty days in July. However, the difference between the friendlies and the official matches is extremely large. Karlsruhe will be closer to victory in the first round due to chemistry and experience.