Hoffenheim v Liverpool Betting Tips: Hosts to give Reds plenty to think about in Sinsheim

After watching his side make something of a shaky start in the Premier League on Saturday afternoon, Jurgen Klopp takes his men to Germany on Tuesday night to face Hoffenheim, one of last season’s surprise packages, not just in Germany but Europe on the whole, in the Champions League play-off. The German, who is no stranger to the Rhein-Neckar-Arena having visited it numerous times during his spell managing in the Bundesliga, will be hoping his team can acquit themselves better than they did at Vicarage Road just a few days ago. After all, if The Reds perform as they did on Saturday, particularly at the back, all of last season’s work could be undone within the space of 90 minutes.

Having seen just how poorly Liverpool defended against Watford, Hoffenheim really ought to be licking their lips ahead of this one. The German outfit, who finished 3rd in the Bundesliga last season, are yet to get underway in their own league but that probably won’t worry them too much. With Liverpool’s recent defensive mishaps in mind, alongside the fact that they’re away from home against very useful opposition, it’s somewhat baffling that they come into this fixture as favourites. Quite frankly, at the prices, the visitors aren’t to be touched. Instead, the two bets that stand out are ‘Hoffenheim to Score Over 1.5 Goals’ and ‘Hoffenheim Draw No Bet’ at odds of 6/4 and 5/4 respectively.

Such defensive woes are certainly not a new thing as far as Liverpool are concerned. Time and time again last season, Klopp’s side were undone at the back. In fact, it’s often hard to see Liverpool keeping a clean sheet, such has been the nature of their defending over the last season or so. Considering that their apparent inability to keep things tight at the back certainly isn’t a new worry, the fact that Klopp has failed to strengthen at the back over the summer has probably left Liverpool fans feeling rather aggrieved. Their discomfort could be about to intensify. Hoffenheim had a tremendous record of scoring on their own patch last season, failing to do so in just two of their 17 home matches. On top of this, Julian Nagelsmann’s men ended the season as the league’s fourth-highest scorers overall and the third-highest scorers at home, notching 35 goals in 17 matches at Rhein-Neckar-Arena.

Over the summer, Hoffenheim did indeed lose two of their most influential players as both young defender Niklas Süle and midfielder Sebastian Rudy, two players who were quite heavily involved in Germany’s Confederations Cup success back in June, departed for Bayern. However, Nagelsmann has recruited well by bringing in both left-back Nico Schulz from Gladbach and Florian Grillitsch from Werder Bremen, while the signing of West Ham’s Havard Nordtveit, who played a key role for Gladbach when they secured Champions League football two seasons ago, adds plenty to midfield. The loan-signing of Serge Gnabry adds pace and direct running to the forward-line.

In all honesty, both on and off paper, it’s safe to say that Hoffenheim are a good bit better than Watford and so it’s easy to see the hosts causing Liverpool’s shaky back-line plenty of problems in this first-leg. Considering that Nagelsmann’s side went the entirety of last season without losing at home, it’s astounding that they’re not considered favourites ahead of this one and this is definitely worth exploiting. What’s more, against a visiting side who have very clear defensive issues, backing the hosts to notch at least twice, something that they managed to do in 59% of their home matches last season, is also too hard to resist.

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