Pre-Match Report
BVB's Next Opponent: What Makes Elversberg So Strong?
Offensively Efficient
Elversberg is continuing the attacking style it displayed in the 2. Bundesliga. With 16 goals this season, the newly promoted team boasts an above-average offense. Nine different players have already scored. Their scoring rate and finishing efficiency are the best in the league.
- Counterattacks: Three goals and 14 shots on goal from counterattacks are league-best figures.
- Set pieces: Five goals, including two direct free kicks by Felix Keidel, rank second in the league for goals scored from set pieces.
- Penalty kicks: The team missed both of its penalty kicks. Last season in the Second Bundesliga, four of eight attempts also failed to find the net.
Defensively Vulnerable
Elversberg has already conceded 16 goals—the expected goals (xGoals) figure suggests they should have conceded even more: the opponent’s xGoals total stands at 19 (the second-highest in the league). No Bundesliga team has allowed more shots on goal than coach Vincent Wagner’s team: 154.
Dangerous early on, still strong late
Elversberg scored eight of its 16 goals this season in the first half-hour. But SVE remained dangerous late in the game as well: two goals came in the final quarter-hour, and two more in stoppage time. The bench has also contributed: five goals were scored by substitutes—the same number as BVB. Only Leipzig has one more goal from a substitute. (br)