SC Freiburg vs Bayer Leverkusen - German Bundesliga

SC Freiburg vs Bayer Leverkusen
Bundesliga : Round 11
Date : 28 October, 2011
Stadium : Badenova-Stadion, Freiburg im Breisgau

The Bundesliga begin Week 11 of the fixture list with the Friday match, this one sees Bayer Leverkusen travel to southwest Germany to take on a struggling SC Freiburg at the Badenova-Stadion.

Freiburg comes into this match propping up the rest of the table and is coming a 1-0 loss to Kaiserslautern. This clubs main downfall has come defensively where they have conceded a league high twenty-five goals and has a league worst goal difference of -11, that being said their two wins on the season have come at home against VfL Wolfsburg and Borussia Monchengladbach. The key player for coach Marcus Sorg is forward Pappis Demba Cisse who leads the team with seven goals; this has been the teams’ main attacking player over the past few seasons. Other key players for Freiburg are defender Andres Hinkel and midfielder Johannes Flum, in Hinkel they have an experienced player that has played most notably for Scottish side Glasgow Celtic as well as the German National Team while Flum is a promising young playmaker that compliments a major goal threat like Cisse.

As for Leverkusen, they come into this match sitting in 9 th place and it also marks the return of coach Robin Dutt and defender Omer Toprak to their former club. Leverkusen suffered a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Schalke 04 at the weekend but will also feel good after their come from behind 2-1 win over Spanish side Valencia in UEFA Champions League, this is a club that is still playing with a third string, emergency loan, 19 year old keeper in Bernd Leno after long term injury layoff still see first choice and back up keepers Rene Adler and Fabian Giefer on the mend. That being said what the club is lacking in defensive solidity they are more than making up for in attacking spirit, the likes of Stefan Kießling, Sidney Sam, André Schürrle and Eren Derdiyok are playing really well with even Michael Ballack enjoying a little renaissance. Where this team is falling a little short is in defence, they aren’t the worst team where this is concerned they are performing at a mediocre level and while they don’t concede a high volume of goals they seem to do so at key moments in matches or against the high quality teams in the league.

Head to Head :
Last Meeting : 14/05/2011, SC Freiburg 0 - 1 Bayer Leverkusen
Wins Freiburg : 12
Wins Leverkusen : 6
Draws : 7

Recent Performance :
SC Freiburg - L/L/W/L/L
Bayer Leverkusen - W/W/D/W/L

Possible Line-Ups :
SC Freiburg : Baumann – Mujdza, Ferati, Butscher, Bastians, Schuster, Putsila, Makiadi, Rosenthal, Dembele, Cisse.
Bayer Leverkusen : Leno - Balitsch, Reinartz, Toprak, Kadlec, L. Bender, Ballack, Castro, Kießling, Schürrle, Derdiyok.

Betting Tip / Prediction :
I don’t believe Leverkusen should have any trouble in this match, however given their ability to throw up the odd result, the match is away from home and taking them straight up is the same value as taking them against the spread I’ll go with the latter just to be safe.
Our predictions Leverkusen is Win