Bayer Leverkusen vs Hertha BSC 19/12/19

19 December 2019

Bayer Leverkusen and Hertha BSC go head-to-head at the BayArena this midweek, with the home side looking to extend their winning run in Bundesliga (BL) H2Hs to three straight games.

Leverkusen’s four-game undefeated BL run was brought to a halt at the weekend (W3, D1) as they lost 2-0 to relegation-threatened Koln away from home. It was the second consecutive competitive match that saw Die Werkself draw a blank and their first BL outing since mid-October in which they failed to find the net. Also, Peter Bosz’s men have endured mixed fortunes at home recently (W1, D3, L1), with all of five of their previous BL home games seeing both teams score in one of the halves. The hosts are pre-match favorites here, nevertheless, mainly due to their impressive recent home H2H record against Hertha (W5, L1) and the fact that they’ve scored 2+ match goals in each of those successes during that six-game sequence.

Meanwhile, the visitors have overseen a slight upturn in results after sustaining five consecutive BL losses, as they come into this encounter after avoiding defeat in back-to-back league matches (W1, D1). A 1-0 home success against Freiburg at the weekend was the first time since late September that Hertha managed to keep a blank sheet in Germany’s top-tier competition. Indeed, Hertha’s defensive frailties have seen them ship 29 league goals already, with just five teams conceding more than them. Jürgen Klinsmann’s men have also failed to keep a clean sheet in all four of their previous BL road trips, conceding over 1.5 match goals in the last two. Another potential worry for Die Alte Dame is a lack of goals away from home, as they’ve netted an average of 1.25 goals per BL road fixture to date.