Bundesliga Matchday 5 Odds & Picks: Bayer Leverkusen vs FC Augsburg, VfB Stuttgart vs FC Koln & RB Leipzig vs Hertha Berlin

• It’s Matchday 5 in the German Bundesliga with games starting on Friday
• The early table has a familiar look with RB Leipzig, Bayern and BVB in the top three
• We list the odds for all nine games and preview three, offering our best picks

Only four games into the new season, the Bundesliga table has a familiar look with the top three places already being occupied by the big three – RB Leipzig, Bayern Munich, and Borussia Dortmund.

We’ll list all nine games, show the odds, preview three, and offer a pick for each below.

Bundesliga Matchday 5 Odds

All odds taken Oct 22 at DraftKings

Pick 1: Bayer Leverkusen vs FC Augsburg

Leverkusen beat Mainz 1-0 last weekend, in what was their first win of the season, and are unbeaten. Prior to that win, they’d drawn each of their first three games, conceding just two goals in the process, and so will be buoyed by getting their first three-point haul of the campaign.

⚫️🔴 FULL TIME 🔴⚫️

Room for improvement, but we've picked up our first 3 points of the 2020/21 season!#M05B04 | 0-1 pic.twitter.com/JdaMHyf6dg

— Bayer 04 Leverkusen (@bayer04_en) October 17, 2020

Bayer will see this home game as an ideal opportunity to build and gain some momentum, even with Arias, Paulinho, Schick, and Wirtz all likely to be unavailable. Augsburg got their own season off to a flier with wins in their opening two games – the second of those against the mighty BVB – but have faltered slightly in the last two games with a goalless draw at home to Wolfsburg and an unsurprising defeat at RB Leipzig.

While Augsburg have dropped to sixth, their confidence remains very much intact and the trip to Leverkusen holds no fears for them. Finnbogason and Moravek are both likely to miss out through injury but they still have a chance here. With +420 available for the away win, for me, that’s definitely where the value lies.

Pick: Augsburg to win (+420)

Pick 2: VfB Stuttgart vs FC Koln

Stuttgart have won two of their opening four games and come into this one off the back of an excellent 2-0 away win at Hertha Berlin. They currently sit fifth in the table – just three points behind leaders Leipzig – and have made a really positive start to their first season back in the top division. By contrast, their visitors to the Mercedes-Benz-Arena, FC Koln, have yet to pick up their first win and have so far earned just a single point.

Ironically, Koln’s point came last weekend in what was, on paper at least, their hardest game of the campaign so far; their 1-1 draw with Eintracht Frankfurt being hard earned but well deserved. It may give them a boost ahead of this tricky trip to Stuggart and they’ll be hoping it’s the kickstart their season needs.

Gut gekämpft, Jungs! #effzeh
___#KOESGE 1:1 (90.) pic.twitter.com/WpJbokq96j

— 1. FC Köln (@fckoeln) October 18, 2020

To help Koln’s cause, over their opening four games, Stuttgart have picked up injuries to key players – Anton, Awoudja, Mavropanos, and Mola are all expected to miss Friday’s game – but FC do have injury concerns of their own with Clemens, Hector, and Kainz unlikely to feature at the Mercedes-Benz Arena. While Stuggart starts here as favorites, I see Koln’s point last week as a positive sign, and they’re more than capable of picking up another draw here.

Pick: Stuttgart and Koln to draw (+270)

Pick 3: RB Leipzig vs Hertha Berlin

Leipzig head into this as league leaders – a point ahead of Bayern and BVB – with their only minor blip so far being their 1-1 draw away at Leverkusen on Matchday 2. Any concerns over a dearth of goals due to the sale of Timo Werner to Chelsea look to be unfounded with 10 goals on the board and with summer signing Dani Olmo already chipping in with three goals.

Hertha, on the other hand, have struggled, winning just one of their four games and losing the other three. Their only win came on opening day when they excelled in winning 4-1 away at Werder Bremen but three defeats since have seen them drop to a disappointing 15th.

While Hertha are a better team than their place in the table suggests, and they did score three times in their defeat by Bayern, home advantage should be more than enough here for a comfortable RB victory. There’s little value though in betting on the win (-225), so trying to predict their margin of victory is probably a better bet.

Pick: RB Leipzig to win 2-0 (+800)