Newly promoted Greuther Furth remained in the relegation zone after yet another defeat and they now face an uphill task against in-form Hamburg. The Red Shorts have finally started playing to their potential and they will fancy their chances of winning the match at Trolli Arena.

Tough times for Cloverleaves

The three-time league championship winners have spent much of the last decade trying to gain promotion to the Bundesliga and they have finally succeeded in their quest last term. The Cloverleaves won the league title in front of Eintracht Frankfurt and Fortuna Dusseldorf, but while the two sides have impressed at the start of the Bundesliga campaign, Greuther Furth have experienced too many problems. This probably has something to do with the fact that club chiefs failed to properly reinforce the squad over the summer, and that could end up costing the club Bundesliga survival. Greuther enjoyed a decent start to the league campaign as the 3-0 home defeat to Bayern Munich was followed by away win over Mainz, but the problem is they have since picked up just one point. Having lost all three home games in the elite division, the Cloverleaves have little to hope for before the clash with Hamburg.

Thanos Petsos, Djiby Fall, Frank Ohandza and Sebastian Tyrala all miss out through injury.

Hamburg back in business

Numerous changes to the playing squad over the years had failed to produce results, but it seems the club chiefs have been finally spot on with summer signings. In came quality players like Rafael van der Vaart, Paul Scharner, Milan Badelj, Petr Jiracek, Rene Adler and Artoms Rudnevs, so it was only a matter of time before the team will hit the ground running. The three opening defeats did not destabilize the team, who responded by beating Borussia Dortmund and Hannover at home, while bringing one point from Moenchengladbach, so it is fair to say the Red Shorts are firing on all cylinders at the moment. After finally recovering from the dismal start, the team are expected to continue improving, and that should result in a good performance against out-of-sorts Greuther Furth.

Ivo Ilicevic, Paul Scharner, Dennis Aogo and Zhi Gin Lam are all unavailable, but Ivo Ilicevic is the only fresh injury worry.

Verdict

The start of the Bundesliga campaign showed Greuther Furth don’t have what it takes to compete at this level and after losing all three home games so far, the Cloverleaves could find it hard to match red-hot Hamburg. The Red Shorts seem to be on top of their game at the moment and they can be trusted to bring all three points from Trolli Arena.

Our prediction: Hamburg Draw no bet

Odds: 1.83 (5/6)

Bookmaker: bet365

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