Football – Germany – Bundesliga
Sunday 5th April 2015 – Kickoff: 1730hrs
Easter Sunday rounds up the weekend’s action in the Bundesliga with hosts Hertha Berlin taking on second from bottom club Paderborn with the home side looking to take all three points in order to put some daylight between themselves and the relegation zone.
Hertha Berlin currently sit in 13th place and are four points ahead of Hamburg who occupy the relegation play-off spot right now. However, Hertha will be keen to extend this points deficit tonight in order to avoid any last-day relegation worries, and current form suggests they stand a good chance of doing just that.
Recent wins against Augsburg and Hamburg along with useful points against Stuttgart and Schalke in 0-0 and 2-2 draws respectively have kept them at arms length away from the bottom three, while their home form stands at an inconsistent 5-2-6 14/20. That said, Hertha have won two of their three encounters at home against bottom third sides in the Bundesliga so far this term.
Paderborn head into tonight’s clash on the back of taking just one point from the last possible 15 on offer thanks to a 0-0 draw at home to Hoffenheim just before the international break. Prior to that stalemate, Paderborn had crashed to four straight defeats to Bayern Munich 6-0, Borussia Moenchengladbach 2-0, Bayer Leverkusen 3-0 and a 4-0 loss at Eintracht Frankfurt.
The maths is easy; 0 goals for and 15 goals against during this sequence, and they have a tough trip ahead of them in Berlin tonight on the back of just two away wins all season within an overall record of 2-4-7 8/27.
To make matters worse, Paderborn have failed to find the back of the net on no fewer than nine occasions so far this season, a statistic that doesn’t fill me with confidence in them!
With Paderborn’s poor away record in mind, I’ll back the hosts Hertha Berlin to register an important three points here in what could perhaps be a narrow 1-0 win at decent odds too.
Pick: Hertha Berlin straight win @ 1.95 bet365
