Football Bet of the Day: Hamburg to keep blowing it

Giants to keep stumbling

Hamburg v Karlsruher
Thursday 29 April, 17:30

I've always liked Salzburg coach Jesse Marsch, but he did us no favours yesterday. He rested Patson Daka, only bringing him on at half-time, and that contributed to a 1-1 draw against Wolfsberger. Annoying, but we move on.

We'll check in with Hamburg in the second tier of German football now, because the northern giants are in the midst of yet another promotion psychodrama. Since they tumbled out of the top tier for the first time in their Bundesliga history, Hamburg have found ever more extraordinary ways to blow promotion, and they are at it again.

Things were going so well under enterprising coach Daniel Thioune, but HSV have hit the skids. The catalyst was an extraordinary 3-3 draw at Hannover, a game that Hamburg led 3-0 in after an hour. Since then they have lost to Darmstadt and Sandhausen, and they needed a late equaliser to salvage a 1-1 draw at Jahn Regensburg.

Karlsruher have lost just two of their last 16 games in the second tier, and that's a run which has taken them to within seven points of third-placed Hamburg with a game in hand. A win at the Volksparkstadion would give them a genuine chance of sneaking into the playoff spot.

Hamburg are a strong side, but the pressure on these players is enormous, and they aren't dealing with it very well. I'll lay Hamburg here at 1.574/7.