Bundesliga - Quick Picks

FC Koln v Paderborn

SC Paderborn are rooted to the bottom of Bundesliga, with just a single point from their opening seven matches, but they could quite reasonably have collected more, and are surely not the worst side in the division. The lost to Mainz last time out, despite the shot count (16-18) being very close. They gave a good account against Bayern Munich the week before that, while they completely outplayed Hertha Berlin ahead of that one but lost 2-1.

They travel to FC Koln this weekend – just three points better off, and arguably a weaker side this season. The hosts will be without Dominick Drexler, Birger Verstraete and Jorge Mere who are all key parts in the puzzle, and their performance metrics are all coming up fairly poorly this season as well. Koln are just too short at 4/6 to win this one, so we’ll take the visitors on the +1 handicap at 6/5.

1pt Paderborn (+1) to beat FC Koln at 6/5 (Coral)

Hoffenheim v Schalke

Hoffenheim saw an excellent squad break up in the summer, with Joelinton joining Newcastle, Nico Schulz join Dortmund and Kerem Demirbay depart for Leverkusen. Perhaps worst was the loss of Julian Nagelsmann from the helm – and Alfred Schreuder hass hardly hit the ground running. They come into this match with Schalke wihtout Ishak Belfodil and Steven Zuber, and could also miss Florian Grillitsch and Dennis Geiger potentially.

Schalke have been on a lovely little run leading up to the International break, beating Hertha, Paderborn, Mainz and Leipzig, before drawing with FC Koln. That’s seen them tally a 14-7 goal difference, compared to just 6-11 from Hoffenheim. Shot wise, Schalke have taken 52% of shots in their matches, while Hoffenheim have managed just 42% and look like they could have a real chance of becoming embroiled in a relegation battle this season. There are probably three worse sides in the division of course, but its not a certainly, and Schalke look value at 6/4 here.

1pt Schalke to beat Hoffenheim at 6/4 (General)

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