| This year everything was ready for Hamburger SV to finally be promoted to Germany's top division after five years in the second Bundesliga. Especially after the promotions of Werder Bremen and Schalke 04 in the previous season, Hamburger take the role of the top team in the division. Things turned out differently, as Hamburger lost a lot of points, especially due to vulnerabilities of the defense. Compared to the direct promoted Darmstadt, they have conceded twelve more goals. According to the bookies the guests are slight favorite for the win in this match. Stuttgart will take the second leg just as seriously as the first meeting. After 3-0 in the first leg, Hamburger should feel lucky enough to not concede even more. Now the hosts will have to play aggressively from the start in order to create nervousness in the opponent with an early goal in their own stadium. We should expext better performance from the hosts this time. In the last ten home games, HSV has won eight and drew twice. Hamburger even scored at least twice nine times. The recent games between Hamburger and Stuttgart always offered spectacle. Both teams have scored in eight of the last ten game between each other. |
