FC Hollywood faced their first league defeat of the campaign last week, but will be looking forward to return to winning ways and stretch their lead at the top of the table
Jupp Heynckes’ UEFA Champions League finalists will be hoping to start another winning record when they visit to the Imtech Arena to take on Hamburg over the weekend. The Bavarian giants will try to recover from their shock loss
against Bundesliga rivals Bayer Leverkusen at the Allianz Arena.
Hamburg SV
The Dinosaur have been in fine form in recent weeks, as they have won three out of their last four Bundesliga clashes. As a result of this, the Bundesliga outfit have moved up to seventh in the league table.
The German club suffered a disastrous start to the season as they lost their opening three games and were placed in relegation places for a while. They beat FC Augsburg 2-0 in an away match last week and will be eyeing three points
when they play against the league toppers.
The arrival of former star Rafael van der Vaart has instilled confidence in the side and they are getting the right results now. Hamburg finished in 15th spot last year and were lucky to avoid relegation. Therefore,
the club signed a couple of good players to improve their Bundesliga standing this term.
Bayern Munich
The Bavarian outfit’s amazing run of eight straight wins could not be extended as they lost to Leverkusen at home soil. The shock defeat has given them a cause for concern and they will be more cautious when playing against a very
good Hamburg team.
Bayern won their DFB-Pokal clash against Kaiserslautern 4-0 in mid-week and will be hungry to bag another league win on Saturday. Die Roten have only suffered two defeats in all competitions and have been in great form since the
start of the season. They lead the rankings and are four points clear of second-placed Schalke.
Der FCB are eager to win a major trophy after two barren campaigns and have signed top players to help them in their cause. The Munich club will also have fresh players as they rested almost all of their first-teamers for the German
cup match. They will be hoping to clinch all three points from their away game.
Interestingly, Bayern have not tasted defeat at the hands of Hamburg in the league since 2009-10 campaign. They also beat their upcoming opponents 5-0 and 6-0 since then.
Team News
The home team will make a few changes in the side that defeated Augsburg. http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Slobodan-Rajkovic-c33708 is out through suspension
and Petr Jiracek will be out due to a thigh injury.
Jupp Heynckes will not have the services of Holger Badstuber and long term absentee Mario Gomez. Franck Ribery is a major doubt, but http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Arjen-Robben-c6521 will be raring to start the match.
Players to Watch
Mario Mandzukic has done an excellent http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Job-c18684 in the absence of Gomez. He is the current top scorer in the league with eight goals.
Former Tottenham Hotspur star Van der Vaart has played really well for Hamburg and has created four goals for his team so far.
Prediction
Bayern will be the favourites to clinch a victory as they have been the side in some great form from the start of the campaign. Bettor.com predicts a
3-1 win for the Reds.
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