Magdeburg still on the hunt for the fox

The weeks of truth are not only coming up in soccer. Decisive matches are also on the agenda in handball. The duel to replace THW Kiel as German handball champions continues this weekend. In our Magdeburg vs Stuttgart betting tip, we check whether SCM still has the best cards in the title race or whether Bittenfeld will spit in the championship soup of Bennet Wiegert’s team

Official leaders of the table are still Füchse Berlin. However, anyone who is reasonably confident in handball knows that the two-point rule at the top of the table is more about the number of minus points. The Berliners are therefore top of the table with 49:7 points, but SC Magdeburg have also played two games less, but have one fewer minus point.

The team from Anhalt is in second place with 46:6 points. With an expected home win on Sunday, the reigning Champions League winners would only close the gap on the Foxes. Passing them is not possible at the moment. However, we have no doubts about a home win and make a clear prediction for a success for the title contenders between Magdeburg and Stuttgart

The Swabians have basically fallen short of their potential for the entire season. The issue of relegation should be a thing of the past after last week’s win against Bergischer HC.

Magdeburg – statistics & current form

The next few weeks will be really hot for SC Magdeburg. Sunday’s match against TVB Stuttgart is just a casual warm-up. After that, however, it’s back to back. The Final Four of the DHB Cup in the Lanxess Arena in Cologne is on the program next week. Their biggest rivals in the championship, Füchse Berlin, await them in the semi-finals. It may continue the next day with the final match

Difficult tasks in all competitions

After that, it’s off to Flensburg for what is currently probably the toughest away game in the Bundesliga. Perhaps the title race will already be decided there, as SCM then only has mandatory tasks ahead of it in the championship. Time enough, then, to deal with Kielce in the quarter-finals of the Champions League at the end of April. Bennet Wiegert’s team will not have some breathing space again until the beginning of May.

Magdeburg will certainly approach the next few weeks with the necessary humility, but there is no need to be afraid. With eight wins in a row, the team from Anhalt is in good form, having beaten Veszprem and Barcelona in the top flight and Füchse Berlin in the Bundesliga. After this series, we are now looking at the odds for a mid-single-digit handicap win between Magdeburg and Stuttgart.

We don’t believe in a big win because Bennet Wiegert will rotate a lot of players as soon as the match against TVB is supposedly decided. That was also the case last week, when Magdeburg won the East derby in Eisenach by ten goals in a 35:25 victory. However, this difference was already established immediately after the break, meaning that the last 20 minutes were basically just a run-out.

Predicted line-up for Magdeburg:
Hernandez, Portner – Bergendahl, Claar, Damgaard, Hornke, Kristjansson, Lagergren, Magnusson, Meister, Mertens, Musche, O’Sullivan, Saugstrup, Smarason, Weber – Coach: Wiegert

Stuttgart – Statistics & current form

With national team player Kai Häfner back in his homeland, Stuttgart wanted to at least knock on the door of sixth place in order to have a chance of participating in the European League. However, the Swabians are far from that. Although they have a good mix of experience and talent, their performances have not been consistent overall

Good performances against strong opponents

Only five wins in the last 15 games. Strangely enough, they beat Hannover-Burgdorf, Rhein-Neckar Löwen and MT Melsungen, teams that also have the ambition to qualify for an international competition. However, there were defeats against some of the teams in the basement. All in all, this meant that Michael Schweikardt’s team had to tremble until last week to avoid relegation, not least because they lost three of their last four games

Bergischer HC visited the Porsche Arena in the basement duel. The game was neck-and-neck for a long time before TVB prevailed in the final phase and held on to win 27:26 in an absolute thriller. Stuttgart now has a seven-point advantage over the BHC, which remains in first place in the relegation zone. A defeat would put Stuttgart right in the thick of the relegation battle.

However, they can now look forward to their next tasks in a relaxed manner. The competition still has to pick up seven points in the remaining games. To do so, Eisenach and Erlangen would also have to get past TVB. We are therefore certainly not going too far out on a limb if we make a prediction on the Swabians’ chances of staying in the league before the kick-off between Magdeburg and Stuttgart.

Predicted line-up for Stuttgart:
Heinevetter, Vujovic – Fernandez, Forstbauer, K. Häfner, Hanusz, Ivankovic, Lönn, Maric, Nicolaus, Pfattheicher, Röthlisberger, Serrano, Slaninka, Widmaier, Zieker – Coach: Schweikardt

Magdeburg – Stuttgart head-to-head comparison / H2H result

Since the 2015/16 season, TVB Stuttgart has been a member of the premier league of German handball. Since then, SC Magdeburg and Bittenfeld have faced each other in a total of 17 matches. The direct comparison is hardly something the Swabians like to watch. After all, the Anhalt team is 16:1 in front.

TVB’s only win came in October 2020, albeit also away from home in the GETEC Arena. Viggo Kristjansson was the guarantor of Stuttgart’s victory with nine goals. Since then, however, SCM has won six more games. The Anhalt club won the first leg of the current season 31:25 in the Porsche Arena. This time, it was Magdeburg’s Michael Damgaard who put his stamp on the match

Magdeburg – Stuttgart tip

The reigning winners of the Handball Champions League will hardly want to be accused of having gambled away the championship with a one-point loss at home to TVB Stuttgart. We find this scenario hard to imagine, because even though the two teams play together in the Handball Bundesliga, they operate in different worlds.

The Anhalt side have won their last eight games, including against Barcelona and Füchse Berlin. On the other hand, TVB have lost three of their last four games. After all, they averted the greatest danger of relegation with last week’s victory against Bergischer HC. The match is likely to be different on Sunday. We think that with an Interwetten bonus between Magdeburg and Stuttgart, a bet on a home win with eight or more goals could fit

We don’t expect a surprise. As far as the number of goals is concerned, we’re already looking at more than 60 goals. The hosts in particular will probably aim for a goal tally well in excess of 30 at home. We have therefore decided to play the odds for a home win between Magdeburg and Stuttgart with a total of more than 60.5 goals