Bayer Leverkusen vs St. Pauli Prediction & Betting Tips (7 December)

It's difficult to accept your status when you won the first German championship title in its history by dethroning Bayern Munich after 12 years of total domination. 3rd in the Bundelisga at the moment, Bayer Leverkusen is not doing too badly but it has still already fallen quite behind the Bavarians who are prancing at the top of the ranking with 7 lengths ahead. After experiencing a small slump symbolized by numerous draws, Xabi Alonso's players resumed their march forward by winning against Heidenheim 5-2 and Union Berlin 1-2 in recent weeks. In the meantime, they had given Salzburg no chance 5-0 in the Champions League. This week, the 11 of the Factory had a lot to do in the German Cup by going to the pitch of Bayern Munich and it emerged victorious by eliminating its rival with the smallest of scores 0-1 after having played a large part of the match at 11 against 10.

On the other side of the median, Sankt Pauli obviously does not enjoy the same prestige as its opponent of the day and the objective for this season is quite different: to secure its maintenance by all the possible means. For the moment, the promoted team are in the lead since they are outside the red zone, in 15th place, with a small lead over the play-off, Heidenheim. After suffering 2 defeats in a row against Bayern Munich 0-1 and Borussia Mönchengladbach 2-0, the Pirates of the League were able to smile again by dominating, last week, a direct competitor in the race for maintenance: Holstein Kiel 3-1.

As during the trip to Munich in the Cup, defender Belocian (ex-Rennes) and attacker Adli (ex-Toulouse) will not be restored. Ditto for the interesting midfielder Hofmann and the Nigerian Boniface (6 goals in the league) who both risk missing the next hostilities before Christmas. On the other hand, the other former Rennais, Martin Terrier, is expected for this meeting. Promoted to the starting position to replace Boniface, Czech striker Schick is in great form having scored 5 goals in his last 3 matches in all competitions. The very good full-backs Grimaldo and Frimpong, the midfield players Xhaka and Andrich and the young star in the making Florian Wirtz (4 goals, 2 assists in the Bundesliga, 5 goals in C1) are also expected to start this game.

several important absentees at the moment. Indeed, the long-term injured Zoller, the replacement goalkeepers Voll, Ahlers and Burchert, the midfielders Metcalfe and Wagner, the Tunisian striker Elias Saad (2 goals), the replacement Banks and the starting defender Mets are all out of condition in good shape at the moment and they will not be traveling to the BayArena. Little in sight offensively, this team has only scored 10 goals (including 3 last week) and the Englishman Afolayan is the only one to have scored at least twice in this group. Note that the former Lensois Guilavogui was able to unlock his counter last week.