HEIDENHEIM – STUTTGART PREDICTION (17.02.2017)

Heidenheim – Stuttgart, the league table, awaits the top runners on the 21st day’s top game. The 1. FC Heidenheim did not come well from the wintry start holes, but has evidently caught again and is still in strike distance to the ascents. In the meantime, VfB Stuttgart has so far fully upheld its reputation as an up-and-coming favorite in 2017 and has now been able to offset a little from the not always convincing competition.

The Heidenheimer 2: 1 coup in the first leg in the Mercedes-Benz-Arena was the only meeting of the two clubs so far.

1. FC Heidenheim

With 18 points from the first nine games, the 1. FC Heidenheim has made an excellent start in his third season of the second league and emphasized a new development at an early stage. However, Frank Schmidt’s coach dropped noticeably and only had eleven points left in the eight matches before Christmas. And also the start into the backround went wrong. In the Erzgebirge Aue, the FCH beat the goal to close the match 2-2, with the defeat going quite well after a weak performance. Subsequently, Heidenheim lost 2: 3 to 1. FC Nürnberg in a tempting match, whereupon coach Schmidt focused more on the defensive, which was to pay off promptly. For the Würzburger kickers the FCH left little behind and won 2: 0 thanks to two standard goals.

For Timo Beermann, who is blocked by the yellow, Mathias Wittek is back in the middle of the field. Otherwise, a lot depends on whether the two last remaining missing, regular foreign defenders Robert Strauss and Arne Feick fit.

Lineup: Müller – Strauss, election, Wittek, Feick – Theuerkauf – Griesbeck, Titsch Rivero – Kleindienst, Schnatterer – Verhoek

VfB Stuttgart

After the descent, VfB Stuttgart’s season start in league two also went turbulently. Not least because coach Jos Luhukay declared his resignation just after the 1: 2 in the first leg against Heidenheim because of internal disagreements. However, the score for the Swabians went very well, with a record of 32 points after fifteen game days in the winter as the last two matches against Hannover 96 (1: 2) and the Würzburger Kickers (0: 3 ). Maybe the weak end of the year was a warning at the right time, because in the winter break the two defeats were intensively worked up and a perfect start into the backround followed. After a 1-0 win at FC St. Pauli, the VfB delivered a really strong home game against Fortuna Düsseldorf (2-0) and could have won even higher. Mühsamer then ran the game against SV Sandhausen, which was won on Sunday but also 2: 1.

Against Sandhausen, coach Hannes Wolf offered for the first time in his almost six-year term the twice twice in a row the same elf. It is possible that a third time follows. The injured Tobias Werner, Benjamin Pavard, Hans Sarpei and Jens Grahl are not available.

Lineup: Langerak – Großkreutz, Baumgartl, Kaminski, Insua – Grgic – Carlos Mané, Gentner, Asano, Green – Terodde