After back-to-back wins in the Bundesliga, Augsburg travel to take on a Mainz side who’re without a win since returning from the winter-break on Friday night at the Opel Arena.
Neither of these two have been the most frequent winners this season, but they’ve certainly got enough about them in an attacking sense to do some damage. At the same time, both have a tendency to concede on a regular basis. With this in mind, the bet that catches the eye ahead of this tie is ‘Both Teams to Score’.
In their three matches since returning to action in the new year, Mainz may have only scored one goal, but they haven’t exactly had the easiest run of fixtures, and that goal did at least come on home soil. It is in fact on their own patch where the hosts have produced their best attacking displays this season having scored 19 of their 27 league goals at the Opel. However, they’ve certainly not looked the sharpest side at the back and have now conceded a total of 15 goals when playing in front of a home crowd, keeping just two clean sheets in nine matches.
Unlike the hosts, Augsburg haven’t really shown a preference for attacking at home, scoring the same amount both on the road and in front of their own fans. With 18 goals to their name, the visitors haven’t exactly dazzled opposition back-lines with their forward brilliance, but they have made a decent habit of scoring in pretty much all of their recent fixtures. Manuel Baum’s team have scored at least once in seven of their last eight league matches.
From a defensive point of view, they might have kept a clean sheet in 33% of their away matches but can boast just two shutouts in their last ten Bundesliga games. Realistically, Augsburg aren’t fancied to prevent a useful Mainz forward-line from finding the net in this one. On the other hand, considering Mainz have one of the worst defensive records in the league, coupled with the fact that they’ve conceded five goals in three matches in 2017, the visiting team should create chances of their own and could quite easily get on the score-sheet too.
A further positive here is the fact that both teams rank highly when it comes to average shots on target conceded in their respective home and away fixtures (Mainz = 4.89, Augsburg = 5.56). On top of this, both teams have scored in 78% of their hosts fixtures at the Opel Arena and in 56% of Augsburg’s matches on the road.
There’s definitely a number of reason as to why you’d think both of these teams can be successful going forward on Friday night and, as a result, both are fancied to register at least once on the scoreboard.
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