Bundesliga This Week - Football (Soccer) News And Picks

Bundesliga This Week
By David Hein
Posted:5:00 am PDT 2007-01-30

German Bundesliga leaders Werder Bremen not only are ahead of Bayern Munich in the standings. They also know ahead of their games what Bayern has done.

Last weekend, Bremen watched as Munich lost on Friday night. Thomas Schaaf's team then watched another top contender, Schalke, capture victory to pull atop the standings on Saturday. A day later, Bremen struggled offensively but still managed a 3-0 home victory against Hanover to reclaim the lead.

Miroslav Klose, Diego and the boys will again this week know what Bayern have done as they play Wednesday at Bayer Leverkusen while Munich host Bochum on Tuesday.

Bremen travel to Leverkusen as +125 WagerWeb.com favourites -- with Michael Skibbe's team garnering +175 odds. And Werder's favoured for good reason, having lost just once in eight road contests, outscoring their opponents 27-11 in the process.

Klose (10 goals) and Diego (eight) are both in the top four in goal scoring, and the pair lead the Bundesliga in combined goals and assists -- Klose with 20 points and Diego with 18. The next best performer is top scorer Marko Pantelic from Hertha Berlin with 14 points (11 goals).

But it's not just Klose and Diego as Bremen have connected on a second-best 32.5 percent of their 154 goal chances thus far.

Leverkusen score plenty of goals themselves, their 31 are fourth-best behind Bremen's league-leading 50. But the Bayer boys also give up their fair share of them -- only five teams are worse than their 26 goals allowed.

Tendency would say expect a high-scoring affair. But Bremen struggled to connect passes before Hanover began pushing forward, exposing themselves to Bremen's lethal counter attack. If Leverkusen can convert some chances -- only 25 percent this season -- that may cause problems for a Bremen side not yet in top form.

Other top games have Bayern Munich as -500 favourites to correct their ship at home against Bochum -- with excellent chances of covering the -160 over for 2.5 goals scored all by themselves.

Alemannia Aachen are +700 underdogs travelling to heavy -350 favourites Schalke. Despite two home losses, Stuttgart are drawing -150 odds as they welcome Armenia Bielefeld, who have won just once on the road this season.

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