Wurzburger Kickers vs St. Pauli Predictions, Betting Tips, & Match Preview

Wurzburger Kickers and St Pauli face off competitively for the first time in the 2. Bundesliga this Monday. Newly promoted Kickers have got off to a much better start than second tier veterans St. Pauli and were somewhat unlucky not to take a point away from their away match against Hannover 96 last weekend. Wurzburg trailed 2-1 as centre back Richard Weil stepped up to take the 93rd minute penalty kick which was kept out by strong hands from Hannover keeper Philipp Tschauner. With their last attack of the match, Kickers keeper Robert Wulnikowski brought himself forward for a corner, from which Hannover 96 quickly countered to make it 3-1 at the other end. Another promising performance from a side who’s main target at the start of the season was survival.

St. Pauli, meanwhile, have had a truly awful start to the new season, winning just one of their 11 matches so far (W1 D3 L7). Pauli’s problems have been at both ends, they are the joint lowest scoring side in the 2. Bundesliga (8 goals) and hold the joint third worst record for goals conceded (19 goals). Their 1-1 draw at home to Nurnburg, who came into the match off the back of four consecutive league wins, was, admittedly, one of the better performances from them we’ve seen. However, Pauli have consistently failed to replicate this on the road. St Pauli have earnt an “acceptable” 5 points from their five home matches (W1 D2 L2), but just 1 point from their six on the road (D1 L5).

Wurzburger Kickers come into this as the bookies’ favourite at 21/20 with bet365. We also fancy the host’s chances here and find these odds to be worth an outright bet for the following reasons: St. Pauli have simply been awful on the road, not only taking away defeats in five of their six away matches (83%), but also failing to score in four of these (66%). Combine this with the fact that they’ve picked up a few crucial injuries over the past few matches (see team news), including that of their top scorer Aziz Douhaddouz (3 goals in 9 appearances), then it’s easy to see how Pauli are going to have a hard time here.

Given the fact that St. Pauli have lost to nil in four of their last six away matches, conceding an average of around 2 goals per game, and that Wurzburger Kickers most common result at home is a 2-0 win, we feel this combination also makes a correct score bet of Wurzburger Kickers to win 2-0 at 8/1 with bet365 has to be worth a punt.