Hannover 96 vs Fortuna Dusseldorf Predictions

Hannover took a very valuable point away from Freiburg on Wednesday – the 1-1 draw saw them move off the bottom of the table on goal difference – but that did mean they will end the year without having recorded an away win in the Bundesliga. Now four points off Fortuna Dusseldorf and safety, even a win for Hannover on Saturday would keep them in the relegation zone over the winter break! A number of injuries to first-team players continues to do coach Andre Breitenrieter no favours either (see team news).

Fortuna Dusseldorf became the first team to beat Borussia Dortmund in the league this season as they fought to an outstanding 2-1 victory at the Merkur Spiel-Arena on Tuesday. Forward Dodi Lukebakio, the player who bagged a hat-trick away to Bayern Munich in November, scored the opener in that game – Dusseldorf’s earliest goal of the season – and he’s now scored 11 goals across all competitions (six in the Bundesliga, four in the DFB Pokal) in 18/19. Coach Friedhelm Funkel will no doubt look to him for inspiration on Saturday.

Going into this, we actually like a bet on over 2.5 goals for the following reasons: Dusseldorf’s poor away record might hinder their chances of getting a result, but the way Hannover’s recent matches have played out, you have to expect them to have a decent chance of at least getting on the score-sheet. Hannover’s football is interesting, in that their attack has been fairly consistent in finding the back of the net – the North Germans have only failed to score in 25% of their matches this season, even scoring against some of the better defences in the league like RB Leipzig (3-2 defeat), Gladbach (4-1 defeat) and Frankfurt (4-1 defeat) – but as their results show, they just can’t seem to stop conceding.

Over 2.5 goals have been scored in a massive 71% of Hannover’s home and Dusseldorf’s away matches this season too, so things continue to point towards goals. And when digging deeper into the stats, it’s easy to see why. No side has seen more shots on goal against them than Hannover, and only four teams have conceded more shots on goal than Dusseldorf – expect both teams to have ample opportunity to find the back of the net on Saturday. Hannover’s home advantage could prove critical in this match, though. The North Germans have won each of their last three matches at home to Fortuna and the visitors’ 18/19 away record – the second-worst in the Bundesliga (W0 D3 L4) – makes us fancy the hosts to clinch it. Our prediction: 2-1 Hannover.