Stuttgart vs Hannover 96 Predictions

Stuttgart and Hannover endured poor campaigns last time round, as they were both relegated from the Bundesliga. As they aim to win promotion at the first time of asking, both will be hoping to make a positive start to the new season.

After a poor season, it’s been all change this summer for Stuttgart. Tim Walter has taken over as manager, while there has been no shortage of comings and goings in the players department. Philipp Klement and Atakan Karazor, who’ve joined from Paderborn and Kiel respectively, are eye-catching signings. Both have experience in this league. Pascal Stenzel, who played 46 times in the Bundesliga for Freiburg over the past two seasons is another pleasing addition. Going the other way, Benjamin Pavard and Ozan Kabak are the only seriously notable departures, so it’s fair to say that Stuttgart have what appears to be a strong 2. Bundesliga squad.

Fortunately, Hannover have also avoided being gutted over the summer. Ihlas Bebou and Niclas Fullkrug are notable outgoing players, though no other first-team regulars have been sold. Moreover, Friday’s visitors have made a couple of pleasing additions, re-signing keeper Ron-Robert Zieler, who was at Stuttgart last season, while they’ve also brought in Marcel Franke from Norwich and Marvin Ducksch, who scored 18 goals and registered 11 assists when playing at this level back in 2017/18, from Dusseldorf. Signing Sebastian Jung on a free could also turn out to be a shrewd move.

As far as this match is concerned, a certain amount of guesswork must be done, as this will be the first time that either side has featured competitively since the end of last season.

The fact that Stuttgart have by far the most valuable squad in the division probably has something to do with them being red-hot favourites. The fact that they beat Hannover by five goals to one at this venue will have undoubtedly contributed too. Finally, the fact that Friday’s visitors went throughout an entire Bundesliga campaign without picking up a win on the road will also have played a part in Stuttgart going down as odds-on favourites in the early betting.

In truth, there’s numerous reasons as to why Stuttgart should do well on Friday evening, though it is easy to feel that they’re slightly shorter than they ought to be. After all, Stuttgart were also poor last season, while historically, they’ve not exactly thrived against Hannover, winning just one of their seven games against Friday’s opponents since 2016. Hannover have won four of those seven.

Furthermore, Stuttgart will start the season without some important players, as Nicolas Gonzalez, Anastasios Donis and Emiliano Insua are all injured. In contrast, Hannover have no major injury problems ahead of the new campaign.

In conclusion, although Stuttgart are the most likely winners at Mercedes-Benz Arena, they appear to have been overestimated by the early market and thus a small play on ‘Hannover Draw No Bet’ is the wisest move.