Schalke 04 v Bayer Leverkusen Betting Tips

Schalke welcome Bayer Leverkusen to the Veltins-Arena on Sunday afternoon as both teams looks to close in on the top-six.

Both Schalke and Leverkusen are two teams that you’d generally associate with the upper echelons of the Bundesliga table, at least in recent times anyway, so the fact that they currently find themselves outside the top-six by seven points won’t sit well with either.

In terms of form, after making a poor start to the campaign, Schalke had been resurgent until losing to the league leaders last week, although they were only narrowly edged out by a very good outfit and aren’t likely to be too despondent. On the other hand, Bayer’s season is yet to really get going – every time they appear to have turned a corner, they let themselves down next time out.

The betting angle in this one is to stick with the hosts. Schalke were in a real strong run of form before being halted by Leipzig last time out, and, back in front of a home crowd at the Veltins, they are fancied to go well. At odds of 11/8 and 6/5 respectively, ‘Schalke to Win’ and ‘Schalke to Score Over 1.5 Goals’ are the two bets to go for.

When playing on home soil, Markus Weinzierl’s side have been in good scoring form. In their last five (all-competitions) they’ve found the net on no less than 13 occasions, scoring at least twice in all five of those. In addition, the hosts have scored 14 goals in their last five home matches in the league, scoring two or more in four of those. From a win perspective, Die Königsblauen have won each of their last seven on home soil (all-competitions) and each of their last four in the Bundesliga. All seven of those wins saw Schalke find the back of the net at least twice.

On their travels is where Leverkusen have tended to struggle this season. Roger Schmidt’s men have won just two of their away matches in the Bundesliga so far, losing each of the other four. They’ve not been the worst going forward, with nine goals to their name, but they’ve looked poor at the back in conceding 11. Considering the attacking pedigree of this Schalke side, it’s certainly not hard to see Leverkusen struggling once again.

What’s also been impressive about Schalke of late is the fact that they’ve seemingly tightened right up defensively. Having won four on the bounce at home, they’ve kept clean sheets in three of those and have conceded just one goal. It’s easy to see the hosts drawing plenty of confidence from such stats as they approach what looks like another very winnable match.

It’s hard to go against a team who’ve been in strong form at home, especially when the visitors have failed to get going on the road, and, all things considered, Schalke are expected to take all three points having scored at least twice on Sunday afternoon.

See more tips here.