Will the goal-happy Werkself prevail on the Alm?
For the fourth time in the club’s history after 1980/81, 1984/85 and 1996/97, Arminia Bielefeld remained without a win on the first six matchdays of a Bundesliga season. Now, of all times, Bayer Leverkusen, the current runners-up in the table, will be visiting the SchücoArena, but the East Westphalians have a good record against them: Bielefeld have only lost two of their last eleven Bundesliga duels against the Werkself.
Nevertheless, in the run-up to the encounter between Bielefeld and Leverkusen, the odds are clearly in favour of the visitors, who have won their last three away games at the Alm across all competitions (twice in the DFB Pokal and once in the Bundesliga). The Werkself are also in good form, having won four games in a row in competitive matches.
Given that Leverkusen, who were not quite as strong away from home in pre-season, have also won their last two away games in a row, it makes a lot of sense to bet on a point win for the Werkself against Leverkusen.
We opt for Double Chance X2, which we combine with a bet on less than 3.5 goals in view of Arminia’s low goal difference (on average, only 1.5 goals were scored per Bielefeld match).
Germany Bielefeld – Statistics & current form
Arminia Bielefeld were surprisingly promoted to the Beletage of German football under Uwe Neuhaus in the summer of 2020 as champions of the 2. Bundesliga. Although the East Westphalians did not overstretch themselves financially and rather baked small rolls, there was a change of coach on the home stretch of the season in the fight against relegation.
Frank Kramer took over as coach and actually managed to keep Arminia in the Bundesliga in the final spurt. In the end, just nine wins and a total of 35 points were enough for 15th place in the final table.
Four draws and two defeats from the first six games
After six matchdays, the corresponding interim conclusion is not too rosy either. For the fourth time in their club’s history, the Bielefeld side have gone winless in their first six Bundesliga games, but have managed to pick up four points with four draws In the Bundesliga, Kramer’s team is also unbeaten in six home games.
The second weakest offence in the Bundesliga
The big shortcoming of the Blues is quickly identified: the lack of penetrating power in the offensive. The Bielefeld attack scored only three goals in the first six league games. That is the second weakest figure in the Bundesliga after Augsburg (two goals).
The only bright spot: With only six goals conceded, at least the defence was stable for long stretches of the still young season. All in all, there is a lot to be said for betting on another low-scoring match between Bielefeld and Leverkusen.
Predicted line-up of Bielefeld:
Ortega – Laursen – Nilsson – Pieper – Brunner – Schöpf – Prietl – Hack – Wimmer – Okugawa – Klos
Last matches played by Bielefeld:
Germany Leverkusen – Statistics & current form
After Bayer Leverkusen only finished sixth in the final table in the summer of 2021 and thus missed out on the Champions League for the second time in a row, the next upheaval was imminent.
Gerardo Seoane, who most recently managed BSC Young Boys very successfully, replaced Hannes Wolf as coach. The Werkself also let former shooting star Leon Bailey go and used the proceeds to strengthen the defence with Odilon Kossounou, Mitchel Bakker and Piero Hincapié, among others.
Total of 21 goals in last seven competitive games
After the first three months under Gerardo Seoane, the first interim conclusion is certainly very positive. In the Bundesliga, Bayer scored 13 out of a possible 18 points and are currently in second place. In the Europa League, meanwhile, the Werkself celebrated a 4-0 away win in Glasgow on Thursday evening after a 2-1 opening victory over Ferencvaros.
In total, the pre-season sixth-placed side have thus won six of their last seven competitive gamesand scored a total of 21 goals in those seven games alone – an average of three goals per game.
Florian Wirtz scored in six consecutive competitive matches always
Symbolic of this offensive momentum is Florian Wirtz, who has always scored in the last six competitive matches. According to the Bet365 app, the odds of 4.00 for a goal from the 18-year-old shooting star are correspondingly interesting for Bielefeld against Leverkusen.
After the exhausting performance in Glasgow, the coach will certainly have to keep an eye on the stress control. However, given the current strength of the Werkself, who have recently recorded two away wins in a row in the Bundesliga, Seoane’s team will be very confident when they arrive at the Alm.
Predicted Leverkusen line-up:
Hradecky – Bakker – Tah – Kossounou – Frimpong – Demirbay – Aránguiz – Paulinho – Wirtz – Diaby – Schick
Last matches played by Leverkusen:
Bielefeld – Leverkusen Direct comparison / H2H-Balance
Head to head: 18 – 14 – 23
55 meetings are on the books between the two teams and the Werkself leads the direct comparison with 23 wins. Leverkusen have won their last three games at the Alm, but have only won two of their last eleven encounters with the Arminen in the Bundesliga.
United Kingdom Bielefeld – Leverkusen United Kingdom Tip
When it comes to Bielefeld against Leverkusen, on the one hand the prediction must take into account the Werkself’s propensity to score goals. On the other hand, it should not be forgotten that the Arminen were difficult to beat at home and defensively were mostly very compact Accordingly, it is important that the best possible bet takes into account the eventuality of the points being shared with possible results such as 0:0 or 1:1.
The greatest value is thus offered by the bet on the double chance X2, which can be combined very coherently with the bet on a maximum of three goals. After all, no other Bundesliga team has been involved in fewer goals than the Blues (on average 1.5 goals per league match).
