Arminia Bielefeld host Augsburg in the Bundesliga on Wednesday, with the visitors looking to get back to winning ways having failed to win any of their last five matches.
Arminia, meanwhile, currently occupy the relegation playoff position in the table, so both sides will be desperate for an invaluable win.
Match preview
© Reuters
Arminia's 2-0 defeat at Freiburg on Saturday was their seventh loss in eight league games, leaving them three points adrift of safety at present.
Uwe Neuhaus's side dug in well for the majority of the game, but Vincenzo Grifo's late penalty saw them frantically chase an equaliser, with Jeong Woo-yeong's last minute strike wrapping up the three points for the hosts.
After a bright start upon their return to the Bundesliga, Arminia are struggling to pick up the points they will require in order to survive at this level.
However, the recent victory over fellow strugglers Mainz 05 has at least kept them out of the automatic relegation places for now, with a home game against Augsburg representing a real opportunity to secure a third win of the season.
© Reuters
Indeed, the fact that Augsburg required a last minute equaliser to avoid defeat against Schalke 04, who have not won in the Bundesliga in their last 27 matches, will provide confidence to Arminia in terms of gaining a positive result.
Heiko Herrlich's side had held a one-goal lead at the half-time interval via Suat Serdar's own goal, but Benito Raman and Nassim Boujellab turned the game on its head either side of the hour mark.
In fairness to Augsburg, Florian Niederlechner's red card afar 53 minutes left them with an uphill battle, so Herrlich will have been more than satisfied with a point in the end after Marco Richter's 93rd-minute equaliser earned them a 2-2 draw.
In the same vein Arminia will fancy their chances, Augsburg will, too, which could create an intriguing battle.
Arminia Bielefeld Bundesliga form: LLLLWL
Augsburg Bundesliga form: WLDDLD
Team News
© Reuters
Aside from Arne Maier, who will miss out with an ankle injury, Neuhaus appears to have a clean bill of health to choose from.
The 61-year-old will be hoping for an inspired performance from Ritsu Doan, who has shown flashes of becoming a phenomenal player so far this campaign.
Augsburg are not so fortunate on the availability front, with Iago, Noah Sarenren Bazee, Jan Moravek, Mads Pedersen and Fredrik Jensen all out injured.
Niederlechner is suspended after his dismissal against Schalke, while Andre Hahn is unable to feature due to coronavirus.
Arminia Bielefeld possible starting lineup:
Ortega; Brunner, Van der Hoorn, Nilsson, Lucoqui; Doan, Hartel, Prietl, Soukou; Klos, Schipplock
Augsburg possible starting lineup:
Gikiewicz; Framberger, Gouweleeuw, Uduokhai, Gumny; Caligiuri, Khedira, Gruezo, Vargas; Finnbogason, Strobl
We say: Arminia Bielefeld 1-1 Augsburg
With both sides desperate to avoid defeat, we can see a fairly insipid draw playing out on Wednesday.
While Arminia need to find wins in their attempt to survive relegation, avoiding defeat generally has to be regarded as a positive result for them at this level.
Top betting tip
Brett Curtis
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Augsburg win with a probability of 39.11%. A win for Arminia Bielefeld had a probability of 36.02% and a draw had a probability of 24.9%.
The most likely scoreline for an Augsburg win was 1-2 with a probability of 8.58%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 0-1 (8.3%) and 0-2 (6.11%). The likeliest Arminia Bielefeld win was 2-1 (8.17%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (11.64%). The actual scoreline of 0-1 was predicted with an 8.3% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Augsburg would win this match.
