Steffen Schmidt - February 16, 2023
Stuttgart vs FC Koln
German Bundesliga
Date: 18 February 2023, Saturday
Kick-off at 14:30 UK / 15:30 CET
Venue: Mercedes-Benz-Arena (Stuttgart).
Stuttgart prolonged their struggles last Saturday when they wasted an early lead to lose the away game at Freiburg 2-1 after a second-half comeback.
Die Roten are now second from bottom in the Bundesliga standings after Hertha’s win last weekend. They will be desperate to turn a corner and escape the danger area as soon as possible.
Bruno Labbadia’s men will try and find a way out of crisis this weekend when they play host to bottom-half rivals FC Koln in Matchday No 21.
The visitors will enter the tie in much higher spirits after going unbeaten in all five games since the winter break.
Three of these three matches did end in draws, but FC Koln showed a phenomenal attacking form in the last weekend’s 3-0 drubbing of Champions League candidates Eintracht Frankfurt at RheinEnergieStadion.
Elyess Skhiri produced one of the best performances of his career, completing a second-half brace in the mentioned thumping six days ago.
Head coach Steffen Baumgart can be thrilled with his team’s defensive performances in 2023. FC Koln kept three consecutive clean sheets going into this tie.
The visitors have shipped no more than two goals since the winter break despite facing the likes of Werder Bremen, Bayern Munich, Schalke, Leipzig, and Eintracht Frankfurt in the process.
We have enough reasons to expect the continuation of a low-scoring trend in this matchup, particularly because of FC Koln’s tremendous form at the back in 2023. The visitors have the momentum on their side after the 3-0 thumping of Frankfurt.
We will back FC Koln to win & Under 2.5 goals FT bet at the odds of 6.50, while you can alternatively go with the visitors to win 1-0 at the 10.00 odds.
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