Freiburg vs Holstein Kiel prediction: GERMANY: Bundesliga betting tips on match 2025-01-10 14:30.
[p]Freiburg ended 2024 with a bitter 5-1 Bundesliga hammering at the hands of Bayer Leverkusen so will be out to start 2025 in a much better way. Encouragement can still be taken from that defeat being preceded by two league wins and a draw which is a run that sees them start the calendar year just one point behind the coveted European places. [/p]
[p]Preparing an assault on the top six will be easier said than done for manager Julian Schuster, considering his side have failed to win their opening Bundesliga game of the year in each of the last three years (D2, L1). But this season’s form at the Europa-Park Stadion will have the Breisgau Brazilians thinking they can buck that trend, having won six of their eight competitive home games this campaign (D1, L1). [/p]
[p]Hoping to pile on the pressure will be Holstein Kiel, who went into their last game of 2024 against Augsburg off the back of five straight losses, yet then managed to surprisingly run out as 5-1 victors! The Bundesliga newcomers will need many more performances like that if they’re to see a second season in the top flight and still start this round in the automatic relegation places.[/p]
[p]Improving their away form will no doubt aid in that endeavour given their winless league record on the road this season (D2, L5), but some encouragement can be taken from at least scoring in each of those games. This will be their first competitive trip to the Europa-Park Stadion and their first league encounter with Freiburg, whom they’ve played just once before and got the better of when winning 2-1 in a DFB-Pokal tie in 2018. [/p]
[p]Players to watch: Freiburg’s path to victory may be through the aerial threat of Michael Gregoritsch as four of his last five goals for his club have been headers. Holstein Kiel will be hoping that Shuto Machino, their chief destroyer against Augsburg, gets going after his two goals and two assists last time out continued the trend of their being more than 3.5 goals in each of his last six goalscoring outings. [/p]
[p]Hot stat: There have been under 1.5 first-half goals scored in seven of Freibrug’s last eight Bundesliga games. [/p]
[p][i]Written by Peter Stavrinou[/i][/p]