Borussia Monchengladbach and Hamburg will open this Friday, December 15, the last round of the year of the German Championship 2017/2018. The match is part of the schedule of the seventeenth round, the last of the first round. It will be held at the Borussia-Park stadium in Mönchengladbach.
The schedule of this season of the Bundesliga has undergone a change from the usual agenda. Due to the holding of the Russian World Cup, which starts on June 14 next year, the dispute began earlier. Thus, the paralysis of a month due to the strong winter in the country was anticipated in a week, the same happened with the resumption, which instead of happening in the third week of January will be made on the 12th of the first month of the year.
For the teams still in contention for the German Cup, however, the break will take a little longer. The competition has the last 16 games scheduled for 19 and 20 December. Borussia will host Bayer Leverkusen. Hamburg is already out of the fray.

The recent performance of Borussia Monchengladbach
Borussia have the opportunity to close the first half of the season in the European tournament qualifying zone, which is the club’s main goal. For this, however, he must end the fasting sequence of victories that has lasted three rounds (two defeats and a draw).
These recent bad results have made the team fall to eighth place. He has 25 points (seven wins, four draws and five losses). The score is the same as Borussia Dortmund, which closes the classification zone for the Europa League with sixth place, and Frankfurt, seventh. Only disadvantage in the tiebreaker criteria.
Even the fight for positions above is not ruled out. The distance to Schalke, vice-leader, is only four points. In the comparison with Bayer Leverkusen, who closes the block of classified for the Champions League, his disadvantage is two points.
The fall in performance of Borussia Dortmund can be partially justified by the large number of embezzlements suffered recently. The club has seven players in the medical department in injury treatment. That’s why coach Dieter Hecking should be looking forward to the stoppage period so he can recover his players for the second half of the season.
The embezzlements were concentrated in the defensive sector and in the midfield. Defenders Tony Jantschke (four matches in the 2017/2018 German Championship without a goal), Fabian Johnson (nine games, one goal) and Tobias Strobl (no performances) are injured; and Laszlo Benes (a game without a goal), Patrick Hermann (11 games without a goal), Jonas Hofmann (seven games without a goal) and Ibrahima Traore (three games without a goal).
The defense seems to have been most affected by the problems. With 27 goals conceded, Borussia Monchengladbach have the third most leaked Bundesliga. The attack, with 24 goals scored, has not been able to compensate for this deficiency.

The current form of Hamburg
As happened in recent seasons, Hamburg have limited their participation in the German Championship in the fight to escape relegation. Staying in the elite division is a pride for the club’s fans, who have never been relegated. Therefore, a clock installed in your stadium marks the exact time that the team remains in the Bundesliga.
However, in recent years, it has been seriously flirting with the fall. He even had to play the repechage with a Second Division team to survive. In the current season, the situation has not changed. With 15 points (four wins, three draws and nine defeats), Hamburg occupy the sixteenth place, opening the relegation zone. In this situation, he would have to play the right to remain in the First Division in the recap.
Like Borussia, he has not won for three rounds. It was two draws and one defeat in the period. But the previous campaign is even worse. In the last ten games, he has only won twice, suffered five defeats and drawn three times.
The consolation for coach Markus Gisdol aiming for the game this Friday is a smaller number of injured athletes. The defender Bjarne Thoelke (still without performances in the German Championship 2017/2018) is in the infirmary; and Lewis Holtby (seven games, one goal), Nicolai Muller (one game, one goal) and Sejad Saliovic (four games, one goal).

History of the bouts between Borussia Monchengladbach and Hamburg
The teams met three times in the previous season. For the Bundesliga, there was a goalless draw in Monchengladbach and Hamburg’s home win 2-1. In the German Cup, also in Hamburg, Borussia got the better 2-1.

It is advisable to wait for the Monchengladbach squad before placing bets on these matches. Many athletes in injury treatment who are likely to return can significantly affect performance. Thus, waiting for the release of the official squad may be important for a better evaluation.
At first, even without this information, the home factor and weak Hamburg campaign give the indication that the guess in Borussia is the best option for the confrontation. It has a price of 1.75 in Rivalo. Tie pays 3.80 and visitor’s success yields 4.70 per invested real.