Hamburg – Schalke 04

Hamburg will break their unlucky streak with a win over a crucial rival

The last round of the Second Bundesliga started with a clash between Hamburg and Schalke at the Volkparkstadion. In Germany's second division, the opening game of the first match day is usually played between the main favourites. As we can see, neither Hamburg nor Schalke realised their potential last season. The former took their traditional fourth place, and the latter did not take part in the fight for promotion at all. At the moment, the state of affairs is roughly similar to what ended last year's championship. Hamburg occupies the current fifth place in three points from the leader, and Schalke is located at the fourteenth position in the standings, ahead of the outermost club in the direct relegation zone - Ulm - by two points. Undoubtedly, the ambitions of the hosts for a long-awaited return to the elite division of Germany are higher than those of the guests. In turn, bookmakers emphasise Hamburg's favourite status, offering odds of 1.66 on their victory. The home team opened the current season as well, and also won the main game of the first round in Cologne. However, further on in the season Hamburg started to show the inherent instability of the club, which in previous years prevented the "dinosaurs" from returning to the Bundesliga. As a result, a fairly successful month and a half in September-October turned into a nightmarish fortnight before the clubs players were disbanded for national team matches. During this period, Hamburg dropped out of the German Cup, and in the championship lost to Elfsberg and Braunschweig, and made peace in a home game with Nuremberg. It would seem that such a playing form of the opponent should be a gift for the players of Schalke, but the guests are very weak since the first rounds of the championship. Victory over Regensburg last round was only the third for the team in the Second Bundesliga. The Pitmen lost six of their twelve league games. Hamburg beat Schalke in both meetings last season. At home, the score was 5-3, while away Walter's side were 2-0 up. We bet that Hamburg players made the right conclusions from the recent results, which will help them to defeat the guests.