📏 Form Guide

Cologne

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Cologne will be looking to improve on their last outing here after the 2-0 Bundesliga 1 defeat last time out to Bayern Munich.

In that game, Cologne managed 31% possession and 11 attempts on goal with 5 on target. For their opponents, Bayern Munich had 16 shots on goal with 6 of them on target. Raphaël Guerreiro (65') and Thomas Müller (93') scored for Bayern Munich.

It has been a rare occasion in recent games where Cologne have managed to hold out for a full 90 minutes. It will be a concern for them that Cologne have seen their defence breached in 6 of their previous 6 matches, giving up 14 goals in the process. We will see if that trend can be sustained in this game.

Darmstadt

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After being defeated in their last game at the hands of Freiburg in Bundesliga 1 action, Darmstadt and their fans will hope to get a better result this time.

In that match, Darmstadt had 53% possession and 17 shots at goal with 5 of them on target. For their opponents, Freiburg got 9 shots at goal with 3 of them on target. Ritsu Doan (36') scored for Freiburg.

A run of somewhat poor efforts from the Darmstadt defensive unit has resulted in a total of 20 goals being given up by them in just their previous six outings. They will certainly want to improve on this sub-par part of their game.

Coming into this meeting, Darmstadt haven’t won away from home in the past 10 league matches. What a terrible run of away results.

🤜🤛 Head to head

An examination of their most recent head-to-head meetings dating back to 23/04/2016 tells us that Cologne have won 5 of these games and Darmstadt 1, with the tally of drawn matches being 0.

A total of 21 goals were scored between the two sides throughout the course of those matches, with 17 of them for Köln and 4 for Darmstadt. That’s an average goals per game of 3.5.

The last league fixture featuring these clubs was Bundesliga 1 match day 13 on 01/12/2023 which finished with the scoreline of Darmstadt 0-1 Cologne.

In that match, Darmstadt managed 45% possession and 11 shots at goal with 2 of them on target.

At the other end, Cologne got 12 shots at goal with 6 of them on target. Davie Selke (60') was the scorer.

The match was refereed by Patrick Ittrich.

📋 Team News: Cologne

The Cologne manager Timo Schultz does not have any fitness worries to speak of coming into this game with a completely injury-free group available for selection.

We think that Köln will possibly employ a 4-4-2 system for the game, beginning the first half with Marvin Schwaebe, Jan Thielmann, Timo Huebers, Julian Chabot, Max Finkgrafe, Faride Alidou, Eric Martel, Rasmus Carstensen, Florian Kainz, Sargis Adamyan and G. Waldschmidt.

🗞️ Team News: Darmstadt

Darmstadt boss Torsten Lieberknecht has to choose a team with limited availability. Fabian Nürnberger (Ankle problems), Fabian Holland (Cruciate ligament tear), Marvin Mehlem (Broken fibula) and Fraser Hornby (Ankle injury) can’t be considered.

From our viewpoint, Darmstadt might make use of a 3-4-1-2 formation using Marcel Schuhen, Clemens Riedel, Christoph Klarer, Matej Maglica, Matthias Bader, Emir Karic, Tobias Kempe, Klaus Gjasula, Julian Justvan, Aaron Seydel and Tim Skarke.

⚡ Prediction

Our thinking is that Cologne should get amongst the goals when they line up against Darmstadt, who could well find it tough scoring a goal of their own.

We therefore think that it’s going to be a fairly comfortable 2-0 winning score for Cologne come full-time.

Our expert partners are tipping under 3.5 goals for this match. Check out their VIP predictions here.

Peter Guest, 13:08 20/04/2024