MAINZ play host to Augsburg at the Opel Arena on Sunday afternoon and a win for either side would go a long way to securing Bundesliga survival.
Just one place separates the two sides in the league table and both teams have struggled for consistency since the German top-tier came out of cold storage.
Mainz boosted their chances of beating the drop last weekend when they recorded a well-deserved 2-0 win away at Eintracht Frankfurt.
Achim Bieierlorzer's side went into the last round of fixtures without a win in five league outings but another three points this weekend would see Mainz move above Augsburg in the league standings.
Indeed, Augsburg picked up a priceless three points when sweeping aside out-of-sorts Schalke three weeks ago, however, Heiko Herrlich's side failed to ease their relegation fears last Sunday when playing out a 1-1 draw at home to Cologne.
Die Fuggerstadter have lost six of their last seven away matches and they can ill-afford a slip-up on Sunday as they have some tricky looking assignments to negotiate in the final three rounds of fixtures.
Outright Betting
Mainz have won six of their last seven meetings with Augsburg at the Opel Arena and a repeat on Sunday is priced up at 13/10 with William Hill.
Augsburg are an unfancied 43/20 with Unibet, while a share of the spoils is at a best 5/2 with BetVictor.
Betting Angles
This looks like an incredibly tough fixture to call given the unpredictability of these two respective sides and therefore I'm going to steer clear of the more traditional markets and instead opt for a couple of alternative angles.
I'm going to start off by delving into the card markets and a bet that I like the look of here is the 19/20 that is available with William Hill for both teams to collect 20+ booking points as both sides battle to beat the drop.
Mainz have racked up seven yellow cards across their last two matches and are averaging 2.8 per game since the restart, whereas Augsburg have received at least two cards in their two away trips following the resumption.
With that in mind, coupled with what's at stake here, I'm more than happy to back both teams to collect 20 or more booking points in what should be a closely-fought and competitive contest.
What's more, collectively both of these sides' last six last games have all featured under 2.5 goals and a repeat on Sunday is currently trading at a tempting 11/10 with William Hill.
Indeed, those odds take appeal, however, I'm going to take a slightly more cautious approach by being creative with William Hill's Build #YourOdds feature by combining under 3.5 match goals, over 6.5 match corners and 3+ match cards at 4/5 (William Hill).
Mainz games have featured an average of 11.1 corners per game this season – the fourth highest in the division – and for reasons already discussed, I don't expect there to be any shortage of cards on show on Sunday.
Furthermore, I fully expect both sides to adopt a safety first approach in this relegation six-pointer and with a goalfest looking improbable, the above-mentioned combination with William Hill looks like a nice alternative approach of trying to squeeze some value out of this crunch relegation clash from the Opel Arena.
This German Bundesliga match between Mainz and Augsburg will be played on Jun 14, 2020 and kick off at 14:30. Check below for our tipsters best Mainz vs Augsburg prediction. You may also visit our dedicated betting previews section for the most up to date previews.