Hertha Berlin vs Freiburg Predictions, Betting Tips, & Match Preview

After spending about twenty weeks within the Bundesliga’s top four in the 2015/16 season before finishing in seventh, the question most want answered moving forward is whether Hertha Berlin are capable of repeating this effort all the way through to the business end of the season this time around. Hertha took just two points from their last seven Bundesliga matches (D2 L5) and their eventual 7th placed finish, their highest since the 2008/2009 season, and subsequent qualification to the UEFA Europa League third qualifying round came as a bittersweet end to their campaign. Hertha scraped through to the DFB Pokal (German League Cup) second round last weekend via a penalty shoot-out win against 3. Liga side Jahn Regensburg, but have already suffered the disappointment of early elimination from the Europa League with a 3-2 defeat on aggregate to Danish side Brondby.

Freiburg return to the Bundesliga after just one season in the second division. The South German side finished top by five points and coach Christian Streich – the man who guided them into the UEFA Europa League in extraordinary fashion in 2013 – is still at the helm of an exciting, youthful team which will be boosted by the return of striker Nils Petersen after his time representing Germany in Rio for the Olympic Games. The main question for Freiburg ahead of this season is whether they can stay up. Coach Christian Streich is certainly still the right man to mastermind a survival bid, but whether the same core of players that went down two campaigns ago can avoid a prolonged relegation battle remains to be seen.

The good news for Hertha is that their stars from last year’s campaign – Salomon Kalou, Vladimir Darida, and John Anthony Brooks – are all staying on at the Olympiastadion. The bad news for Hertha is that the side are in poor form, with just one win in their last eleven competitive matches (W1 D2 L8). Contastingly, Freiburg are in top form, losing just one of their last fourteen competitive matches (W12 D1 L1), and they remain, at their core, largely unchanged since last season. Freiburg scored the most goals in the 2. Bundesliga last season and striker Nils Petersen, who was crucial to his side’s title-winning campaign, scoring twenty-one goals, has experienced top flight football with the side before, finding the net nine times in his nineteen appearances for Freiburg two years ago.

As such, we feel that the visitors have a decent chance to take away at least one point here and are definitely the better value bet. Freiburg or draw at 3/4 and Freiburg to win 2-1 at 12/1 are our top choice bets for this match.