St. Pauli vs Heidenheim prediction: GERMANY: Bundesliga betting tips on match 2024-08-24 15:30.
[p]After a 13-year hiatus, St. Pauli finally returned to the top flight by virtue of winning the 2023/24 2.Bundesliga. Known as a “cult club” by many, St. Pauli bring with them a vibrant, global fan base from all walks of life which consistently delivers one of the noisiest environments in German football. Despite the party atmosphere, St. Pauli arrive here with no major honours and are unsurprisingly amongst the favourites to face automatic relegation. [/p]
[p]The uncertainty around their chances of beating the drop were exacerbated when manager Fabian Hürzeler left for the Premier League over the summer, allowing Alexander Blessin to take the reins. In a sign of true belief in the project, Blessin gave up guaranteed European football with Union SG in Belgium, although the former RB Leipzig coach has a job on his hands to help the Buccaneers avoid a third straight immediate relegation campaign in the top-flight. [/p]
[p]Providing the opposition are Heidenheim, another side punching above their weight in the Bundesliga after making a mockery of the pre-season predictions in their maiden campaign. Despite being written off at the start, Heidenheim ended up finishing 15 points above the automatic relegation zone and in a European play-off place, with this fixture awkwardly falling right before their crunch second leg in their Conference League qualification play-off against Häcken.[/p]
[p]Qualification for the league phase would be a fitting reward for the Bundesliga’s longest serving boss, Frank Schmidt, who approaches his 17th anniversary at the helm of Heidenheim looking to maintain his 100% record against newly promoted sides since his side’s top-flight debut (W2). Despite that perfect return last season, it should probably be noted that just three of Heidenheim’s ten league wins in 2023/24 came on their travels (W3, D7, L7). [/p]
[p]Players to watch: Having lost some serious goal contributions from last season in the form of Marcel Hartel (2BUN: G17, A12), St. Pauli may rely on their joint-next best contributor Johannes Eggestein, who contributed to two of their three goals in their recent cup game. For Heidenheim, Maximilian Breunig enjoyed a dream debut with a perfect ten Flashscore rating as he bagged a hat-trick last weekend in the DFB-Pokal, his first game since joining from Freiburg. [/p]
[p]Hot stat: Frank Schmidt failed to win any of his last seven H2H encounters with St. Pauli (D2, L5). [/p]
[p][i]Written by Matthew Billon[/i][/p]