Bayer 04 Leverkusen vs. FC Koln 6/17/20 Bundesliga Soccer Pick, Odds, and Prediction

Bayer 04 Leverkusen is welcoming FC Koln to BayArena in round 32 of German Bundesliga.

Leverkusen is continuing to play solid soccer which has finally brought them to the Champions League spot. Leverkusen is now in 4th place in the standings with 57 points, just one point ahead of M’gladbach. In their most recent Bundesliga game against Schalke on the road, Leverkusen was a much better team with 73% of ball possession, 5 shots on goal, 9 corner kicks, and 86% of the correct passes. Despite being the better team, Leverkusen was losing 1-0 until 86th minute when Schalke scored an own goal. This match ended in 1-1 draw. If not for Leverkusen’s sloppy defense, the defense that conceded 41 goals, Leverkusen would have secured their Champions League spot, but now they need to fight until the very end of the season to be sure. Offensively, Leverkusen is having a decent season with 57 scored goals. Havertz has scored 11 times for Leverkusen while Volland added 9 goals and 7 assists. Bender, Bellarabi, and Alario are injured, just when Leverkusen and coach Bosz needs them the most. The last three games won’t be easy for Leverkusen, but they are on the easier side and I believe that Leverkusen will stay in this 4th place that will take them to the Champions League next season.

Koln is on a terrible 8-game run without a win, and it could cost them because there are 9 possible points to win until the end of the season, and Koln is only 7 points away from the relegation zone. During this negative stretch, Koln has conceded at least 1 goal in every game, but they have also scored at least 1 goal during this 8-game stretch. Koln is now in 12th place in the standings with 35 points, 48 scored goals, and huge 59 conceded goals. Cordoba is Koln’s leading goal scorer with 13 goals. Risee and Terodde are both injured and will not be in the lineup. In their latest Bundesliga game against Union Berlin at home, Koln was the better team by far with 61% of ball possession, 6 shots on goal, 4 corner kicks, and 80% of accurate passes. I can’t say that Koln was having a good day in the attacking end because they had a lot of chances but didn’t used any of them, but they have had much worse day on the defensive end with 2 conceded goals. Koln has lost this match 1-2. This hiatus due to the Covid19 didn’t affect Koln well, and since the season started, Koln hasn’t been playing well and they are still winless. The only positive thing, if we can call it that, is that Koln is constantly scoring goals, too bad they are conceding more. It will be a hard end of the season for Koln.

The one thing we usually see when Leverkusen is hosting Koln are goals, and even though I would give the advantage to Leverkusen, I’m aware that this slump Koln is in has to end, hopefully for them, it will end this season. Taking everything into consideration, I will pick something on goals here.