Today's opening match to the start of the 3. Liga between Osnabrück and Duisburg has been called off yesterday, as there were a couple of Duisburg players and staff who have tested positive for COVID-19.
The opening match to the start of the 2. Liga between Schalke and Hamburg, however, will go ahead as planned, with Schalke coming back from selfisolation, after their keeper, Ralf Fährmann, had tested positive as well. Will be interesting to see how both clubs will cope with the pressure and expectations. Schalke have signed midfielder Dominick Drexler from Cologne on wednesday, and the best 2. Liga striker (Niall Quinn type) Simon Terodde from Hamburg at the start of the season. They proved to be some kind of "promotion guarantee" when they played for Cologne three seasons ago.
Very difficult to predict the outcome, I go for a 2-1 away win for Hamburg, Schalke might need to adopt to the 2. Liga with their new squad and learn to cope with the pressure. Both teams should surely be strong enough to finish in the top 3, however, this has been the case for Hamburg since they were relegated to the 2. Liga and they didn't... Will be fun to watch from a neutral perspective again.
