Bundesliga: Hamburg vs. Saint Pauli – Preview
Hamburg play the second derby of the season with bitter rivals Saint Pauli in a thrilling game at Mercedes Benz Arena.
Hamburg SV have been in impressive form of late and have won three of their last 4 games, a run that has left the team in quite a good standing. If they manage to beat Saint Pauli tomorrow, they will move within a point of Mainz, who are at 5th
place, closer to a Europa League place.
This great run of form is largely due to the increase in competition between players. In the last few weeks, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Dennis-Aogo-c10904 and Eljero Elia have all returned from lengthy injury absences and are
now fighting for a place in the starting line-up.
This is giving coach, Armin Veh, some seriously great selection headaches. "At last, we have the situation that we had hoped for last summer in terms of the composition of the squad", said Veh while talking to the media.
The Hamburg derby was expected to be played on Sunday but due to heavy rainfall, it was re-scheduled for Wednesday.
Last week, Saint Pauli played Borussia Moenchengladbach and won 3-1 and the week before that, they beat Cologne 3-0 to take themselves out of the relegation zone. Now lying in 12th place in the Bundesliga standings, Saint Pauli will be looking
to go further away from the dreaded zone in order to get some breathing space between themselves and relegation threatened sides.
However, the last two victories were at home so Saint Pauli will have to find a way to replicate their home form when they play a rejuvenated Hamburg side.
Traditionally, Saint Pauli seem to get highly motivated ahead of big games and many players believe that the Hamburg derby may well be the biggest match of their season so far.
In the reverse encounter of this fixture earlier this season, Saint Pauli were leading the game and had almost ended the game with all three points but conceded a goal late in the 2nd half. Saint Pauli have a game in hand right now and they will
be looking to get all three points out of this match in order to step further away from the danger zone.
Team news
Defender, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Eljero-Elia-c12318, has been in a rich vein of form but has announced his frustration at not being used regularly so Veh may give him a chance
to shine in the derby.
Probable starting XI: Rost - Demel, Westermann, Mathijsen, Aogo - Ben-Hatira, Jarolim, Ze Roberto, Elia, Petric, Ruud van Nistelroy
Saint Pauli
Florian Lechner and http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Fabio-c13152 Morena and Carsten are long-term casualties.
Probable starting XI: Kessler - Thorandt, Zambrano, Gunesch, Maurice Volz, Boll, Lehmann, Bartels, Takyi, Kruse, Asamoah
Predictions
Although Saint Pauli have been in decent form lately, Hamburg are a side that have all their best players available and have a very good home record at the Mercedes Benz Arena. A 2-1 victory can be expected from the home side that is currently on a ‘mini
roll’.
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