Heidenheim Augsburg prediction 2023-10-22

Heidenheim vs Augsburg prediction: GERMANY: Bundesliga betting tips on match 2023-10-21 15:30.
After they reached the Bundesliga for the first time in club history and confirmed Frank Schmidt’s record as the longest serving manager of a German professional club, another historic day awaits Heidenheim as they prepare to face Augsburg for the first time in competitive action. Even though they went into the international break on the back of a 2-0 loss to Frankfurt, there may be a sense of cautious optimism among the squad.

That’s because the hosts haven’t posted back-to-back league defeats since the opening two rounds (W2, D1, L2), largely thanks to a pair of strong wins at home to Werder Bremen (4-2) and Union Berlin (1-0), a duo who start the round directly above Augsburg in the table. Turning Voith-Arena into a ‘fortress’ is going to be key to what will be a long battle for survival, but having won 14 of their last 20 home league games (D4, L2), they’re well on their way to doing so.

Augsburg may take stock from the fact that most of their hosts’ unbeaten home games in that aforementioned sequence were in the second tier, yet coming into this on the coattails of consecutive league defeats is hardly ideal. The Bavarians could be battling for survival themselves this season on the evidence so far (W1, D2, L4), especially as their most recent game was a 2-1 defeat against the other recently promoted side club Darmstadt.

That result prompted the sacking of former boss Enrico Maaßen, a decision which has made way for Jess Thorup to bring some new ideas to the club. Having led Midtjylland and Copenhagen to respective Danish titles, fans of Augsburg can only hope that some of Thorup’s success rubs off on his new squad. Things couldn’t really get much worse on their travels in any case, with Augsburg last picking up a Bundesliga away win more than one year ago (D3, L13)!

Players to watch: Heidenheim will hope Jan-Niklas Beste can keep up his cracking form this weekend after averaging one goal contribution per game across his last six league appearances (G3, A3). Meanwhile, Ermedin Demirović contributed to all six of Augsburg’s goals across their last six games (G4, A2), and also scored for Bosnia and Herzegovina during the international break.

Hot stat: Ahead of this Bundesliga round, only Augsburg (five) had conceded more goals in the opening 15 minutes than Heidenheim (four).