Stuttgart were on the end of one of the surprises of the opening weekend of the Bundesliga season as they were beaten 3-1 by Freiburg despite taking the lead inside 2 minutes.

Stuttgart were one of the stories of the Bundesliga last season finishing ahead of Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund and RB Leipzig in 2nd place spearheaded by head coach Sebastian Hoeness.

Stuttgart only lost one game at home across the entirety of last season, winning 13/17 of their home games scoring 50 goals in the process and only conceding 15. They face a side in Mainz who really struggled in Germany’s top division last season, they finished just 2 points above the relegation spots and had a woeful away record in which they won only 1 out of their 17 away games.

Stuttgart comfortably beat Mainz 3-1 in both meetings between the sides last season, Stuttgart’s indifferent start shouldn’t put you off backing them in this one, they bounced back from the league defeat with a 5-0 cup win and look set to pick up their first points of the Bundesliga season against a weak Mainz side who could be facing a fight to stay up this season.

Wolfsburg gave Bayern Munich a bit of a scare in their opening game of the Bundesliga season with Lovro Majer scoring 2 goals to leave new coach Vincent Kompany sweating but Gnabry found a winner for the German giants late on, it was a positive performance from Wolfsburg who generated an xG of 1.86.

They face a newly promoted side in Holstein Kiel who did well themselves to give Hoffenheim a good game but ultimately came up short, worryingly for Holstein Kiel, they conceded an xG of 3.48 against Hoffenheim which is far too high to sustain if it becomes a trend.

Wolfsburg weren’t the greatest travellers last season which is why we’ve leaned towards double chance here but their performance against Bayern Munich in the opening game was positive enough for them to take some confidence into this one.

It’s an important game in the context of the start of the season with Frankfurt, Stuttgart and Bayer Leverkusen a menacing looking 3 games to follow for Wolfsburg so they will want to get some points on the board early to avoid being dragged into a relegation scrap as they were at times last season.

This game has all the makings of an incredibly entertaining match, the two meetings between the sides last season produced 10 goals with Xavi Alonso’s seemingly inevitable Leverkusen side running out 3-2 winners in both games.

Bayer Leverkusen started their season how they ended last, a 90+11 Florian Wirtz winner gave them their first points of the new season after Mochengladbach mounted a late comeback. Leipzig’s win against Bochum in their first game was more routine, they ran out 1-0 winners thanks to a goal from new signing Antonio Nusa who is part of a very promising young core including Xavi Simons, Benjamin Sesko and Lois Openda.

Leipzig’s goal record stayed pretty consistent on their travels, 37/77 (48%) of their goals came in away games showing they pose a threat to any team. Both of these sides produced an xG of 1.0 or higher in each of their meetings last season suggesting both sides can create high-quality chances against the other in what should be an end-to-end encounter producing a decent volume of chances at either end.