Mainz vs SV Elversberg Prediction, Odds, Best Bets - Bundesliga
Seventh meets eighth on Friday night, level on points, and Mainz bring a perfect away record to a ground where Elversberg score and concede in bunches.
The Matchup
Mainz arrive in Spiesen-Elversberg with the strangest split in the Bundesliga. Urs Fischer's side have won all three of their away matches, scoring 10 goals and conceding 3, and they are winless in four at home, with three defeats and a goalless draw. It is the road version Elversberg get on Friday night: 5-0 winners at Hamburg SV on September 6, 4-3 winners at Borussia Monchengladbach on September 19, and 1-0 winners at Schalke 04 on October 17, when Phillip Tietz scored the only goal.
Elversberg have made their small ground awkward for visitors. The promoted side have won two of their three home matches and scored 8 goals in them, and they put four past FC Augsburg in the 4-3 win on October 17, with Lukas Petkov scoring the opener and setting up the late winner. Neither club has named its side yet.
The expectation is Tietz leading the line for Mainz with Sheraldo Becker alongside him and Anthony Caci wide, and Mokwa up front for Elversberg with Maurice Krattenmacher and Lukas Petkov around him. Elversberg lose a starter to do it. Jan Gyamerah, who started at RB Leipzig on Saturday, is out with a hamstring injury. Mainz midfielder Nadiem Amiri is a doubt after missing the midweek cup tie with a knee problem, and the visitors' case does not rest on him.
Key Factors
Tietz is the form striker in this game, with 5 league goals, and his scoring has travelled. He scored twice in the Hamburg win, once at Monchengladbach and the winner at Schalke. Caci is Mainz's second route to goal, with 3 league goals and a goal and an assist in Saturday's 3-2 loss to Werder Bremen. Elversberg's problem is the other end.
They have conceded 15 goals in seven matches, four of them at Leipzig on Saturday and three at home to Augsburg, and a defense that open gives Tietz exactly the chances he has taken all season. The counterpoint is real, though. Elversberg have scored in every home match, their Augsburg win turned into the kind of shootout Mainz would hate to join, and Mainz's own defending collapses when it goes wrong, with Frankfurt scoring three, Leverkusen four and Werder Bremen three against them at the MEWA ARENA. If Elversberg score first on Friday, the home crowd will make it a long night.
Editorial pick. Mainz are two different teams home and away, and on Friday night they get to be the away one. Tietz scores wherever Mainz travel, Elversberg concede to everybody, and the visitors have won every road match by playing exactly this kind of open game. The draw is the danger, because Elversberg rarely roll over in front of their own crowd, but plus money on a perfect away record is the right side of it. Take Mainz ML at +115.
Game information
| DATE | Friday (10/30) |
|---|---|
| START TIME | 2:30 PM CT |
| VENUE | URSAPHARM-Arena an der Kaiserlinde, Spiesen-Elversberg |
| COMPETITION | Bundesliga |
| ROUND | Bundesliga Matchday 8 |
| SPREAD | Mainz -0.25 (-111) |
| TOTAL | 3.25 (Over -103 · Under -109) |
| MONEYLINE | SV Elversberg +217 / Draw +294 / Mainz +115 |
| DRAW NO BET | SV Elversberg +138 / Mainz -163 |
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