Friday Football Tips: Back first half fireworks in Mainz

It's Bonfire Night on Friday and we're hoping for fireworks over in Germany as Mainz tackle Borussia Monchengladbach in a 50-50 game in the Bundesliga.

The two sides can hardly be split in the betting, with Mainz at home, in a surprising fifth place in the table and winning their last three in all competitions, scoring eight goals in the process.

Visiting Borussia Monchengladbach, though, have won their last two and one of those just so happened to be a 5-0 humbling of the mighty Bayern Munich in the German Cup. A near enough full-strength Bayern at that.

Bo Svensson's Mainz have the best home defensive record in the division, but their recent up-turn in fortunes has been down to a more attacking style, which has seen both teams score in their last five outings - and their last three at home.

That could be music to the ears of Gladbach, who have won just one of their five away games in the league so far, and scored in just two of them.

But Adi Hutter's side could not have greater confidence than they do now, with them coming from behind to beat Bochum to back-up that Bayern victory - it's too tight to call a winner but both teams should be able to find the net.

Goals often happen early in this fixture too, with the last four head-to-head meetings all seeing at least two goals in the first half. That's a feature of Gladbach's recent games as there's been two or more first half goals in four of their last five.

Over 1.5 first half goals here is 2.747/4 on the exchanges and is worth a bet in its own right.

We always like to look at the player markets though and for Mainz you have to side with the man in form and that's Jonathan Burkardt - with the 21-year-old scoring in the last four competitive games and totaling five goals and two assists in that spell.

He's had a shot on target in his last four games, nine overall in those matches, and in his last two home starts he's scored three goals, made two assists and had seven shots on target. That's what you call a man in form, so let's back him to hit the target.

For Gladbach, Alassane Plea is an interesting option as he made a superb impact in his first start for five games against Bochum last time out - scoring a goal, assisting with another as he hit the target with one of his two shots.

Before that, even in four substitute appearances he'd managed a shot on target in three of those, and being such a factor in the last game should grant him another start - and that usually means a shot on target for him.