This promises to be another interesting encounter at Stade de la Maladière in the Challenge League. Neuchâtel Xamax is in 1st position and welcome Aarau in 3rd place. Read all about the match here!
There’s little time for restitution or working hard at the training pitch these days, with both teams having played their last game less than four days ago.
One slightly interesting match fact is that this game is played on artifical turf and that the visiting Aarau have a different surface at their stadium (grass). The impact of this is hard to measure exactly, but the visitors stats on artifical turf is 7-1-2 (win-draw-loss) from ten matches.
Neuchâtel Xamax form and stats
The hosts won their first Challenge League game here at Stade de la Maladière, lifting spirits. Home statistics for Neuchâtel Xamax last season were 7 wins, 3 draws and 8 losses from 18 games.
A nice win for Neuchâtel last time playing, versus Kriens. That was also a home game and the match ended 4-0 with Y. Epitaux (2) and K. Gazzetta (2) scoring for the victors. As mentioned above, Neuchâtel "killed" Kriens in their previous game. They need to reset completely for this one and beware of complacency.
In the preceding match a 2-1 victory visiting Vaduz.This is expected to be a close game, with Neuchâtel Xamax perhaps considered small favourites due to their home advantage. Looking back at earlier matches similar to this one (expected to be close with Neuchâtel as a small favourite), we find ten games. Neuchâtel Xamax has won four of these, drawn five and lost one.
The manager A. Binotto will start preparations for the next game as soon this is finished, as the hosts are going to Lachen / Altendorf in only four days.
Neuchâtel Xamax has scored 4 goals so far and conceded 0 goals from 1 home game. These are numbers from the league only.
Aarau form and stats
Only one away game in the Challenge League so far for Aarau and it resulted in three points. Last season the statistics for their away games were 6 victories, 4 draws and 8 losses from 18 travels.
Two travels in a row for Aarau, whose manager S. Keller could celebrate last time after the Challenge League win against Thun. World class coaching! That was the thoughts of manager S. Keller when Mickael Almeida scored the winning goal after coming on as a substitute in the 56th minute. Late drama in the previous game, when Mickael Almeida scored the winning goal four minutes into stoppage time to defeat Thun.
Before that, Aarau secured a home win against FC Schaffhausen with the score 2-0.So, this is expected to be a close game, an even contest. Looking at earlier matches with Aarau playing away and similar expectations, we found nine relevant matches. Results were five Aarau wins, one draw and three defeats.
2 goals so far away for Aarau, while their defence has allowed the opposition to score 1. All from 1 league match away.
Head 2 Head
Head-2-head stats last ten meetings: three - one - six (Neuchâtel wins - draws - Aarau wins). As for goals, seven matches ended with three or more goals (over 2,5), three had two or less.Top Goalscorers
  K. Gazzetta 3 goals | Y. Epitaux 2 goals | M. Haile-Selassie 1 goals |
Neuchâtel Xamax missing players
Aarau missing players
| Neuchâtel Xamax | Aarau | ||||||
| Total | Home | vs | Statistics | Stat | vs | Away | Total |
| 2 | 1 | 0 | Played | P | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 2 | 1 | 0 | Won | W | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 0 | 0 | 0 | Drew | D | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 0 | 0 | 0 | Lost | L | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 6 | 4 | 0 | Scored | S | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| 1 | 0 | 0 | Conceded | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 100% | 100% | 0% | Over 0.5 | O 0.5 | 100% | 100% | 100% |
| 100% | 100% | 0% | Over 1.5 | O 1.5 | 100% | 100% | 100% |
| 100% | 100% | 0% | Over 2.5 | O 2.5 | 100% | 100% | 50% |
| 50% | 100% | 0% | Over 3.5 | O 3.5 | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| 0% | 0% | 0% | Over 4.5 | O 4.5 | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| 50% | 0% | 0% | BTTS | BTTS | 100% | 100% | 50% |
| 50% | 100% | 0% | Clean Sheets | C S | 0% | 0% | 50% |
| 0% | 0% | 0% | Failed to Score | F T | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| 4 | 5 | 0 | Corners for (avg) | C F | 2 | 2 | 3 |
| 5 | 5 | 0 | Corners against (avg) | C A | 7 | 7 | 7 |
| 1.5 | 1 | 0 | Yellow cards (avg) | Y C | 5 | 5 | 2.5 |
| 0 | 0 | 0 | Red cards | R C | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 13 | 16 | 0 | Shots (avg) | S ( | 10 | 10 | 9 |
| 7.5 | 11 | 0 | Shots on Target (avg) | S O | 6 | 6 | 5 |
| 40% | 36% | 0% | Goal Efficiency | G E | 33% | 33% | 40% |
| Neuchâtel Xamax | Last season | Aarau | |||||
| Total | Home | Statistics | Stat | Away | Total | ||
| 36 | 18 | Played | P | 18 | 36 | ||
| 10 | 7 | Won | W | 6 | 17 | ||
| 6 | 3 | Drew | D | 4 | 7 | ||
| 20 | 8 | Lost | L | 8 | 12 | ||
| 36 | 21 | Scored | S | 27 | 66 | ||
| 58 | 24 | Conceded | C | 37 | 59 | ||
| 94% | 94% | Over 0.5 | O 0.5 | 94% | 94% | ||
| 72% | 72% | Over 1.5 | O 1.5 | 83% | 83% | ||
| 56% | 56% | Over 2.5 | O 2.5 | 61% | 72% | ||
| 28% | 17% | Over 3.5 | O 3.5 | 50% | 53% | ||
| 8% | 6% | Over 4.5 | O 4.5 | 33% | 22% | ||
| 42% | 39% | BTTS | BTTS | 67% | 64% | ||
| 19% | 28% | Clean Sheets | C S | 17% | 22% | ||
| 44% | 39% | Failed to Score | F T | 22% | 19% | ||
| 4.2 | 4.1 | Corners for (avg) | C F | 7.2 | 6.6 | ||
| 5 | 4.7 | Corners against (avg) | C A | 4.6 | 4.7 | ||
| 2.4 | 2.1 | Yellow cards (avg) | Y C | 2.1 | 1.7 | ||
| 4 | 0 | Red cards | R C | 2 | 4 | ||
| 7.5 | 8.1 | Shots (avg) | S ( | 9.2 | 9.8 | ||
| 3.1 | 3.5 | Shots on Target (avg) | S O | 3.9 | 4.4 | ||
| 32% | 33% | Goal Efficiency | G E | 39% | 43% | ||
| Total | Home | Away | |||||||||||||||||||
| # | Team | MP | W | D | L | F | A | MP | W | D | L | F | A | MP | W | D | L | F | A | +/- | P |
| 1 | Neuchâtel Xamax | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 6 |
| 2 | Thun | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 6 |
| 3 | Aarau | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 6 |
| 4 | Stade Lausanne-Ouchy | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| 5 | Winterthur | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| 6 | Vaduz | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 3 |
| 7 | FC Schaffhausen | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | -2 | 1 |
| 8 | Kriens | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | -6 | 1 |
| 9 | Wil | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | -3 | 0 |
| 10 | Yverdon Sport | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | -5 | 0 |
| Last season | Total | Home | Away | ||||||||||||||||||
| # | Team | MP | W | D | L | F | A | MP | W | D | L | F | A | MP | W | D | L | F | A | +/- | P |
| 1 | Grasshopper | 36 | 19 | 8 | 9 | 60 | 43 | 18 | 12 | 3 | 3 | 34 | 18 | 18 | 7 | 5 | 6 | 26 | 25 | 17 | 65 |
| 2 | Thun | 36 | 19 | 7 | 10 | 57 | 46 | 18 | 10 | 3 | 5 | 26 | 16 | 18 | 9 | 4 | 5 | 31 | 30 | 11 | 64 |
| 3 | Stade Lausanne-Ouchy | 36 | 15 | 13 | 8 | 57 | 39 | 18 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 32 | 21 | 18 | 7 | 7 | 4 | 25 | 18 | 18 | 58 |
| 4 | FC Schaffhausen | 36 | 16 | 10 | 10 | 59 | 46 | 18 | 10 | 4 | 4 | 35 | 22 | 18 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 24 | 24 | 13 | 58 |
| 5 | Aarau | 36 | 17 | 7 | 12 | 66 | 59 | 18 | 11 | 3 | 4 | 39 | 22 | 18 | 6 | 4 | 8 | 27 | 37 | 7 | 58 |
| 6 | Winterthur | 36 | 11 | 10 | 15 | 50 | 52 | 18 | 7 | 5 | 6 | 32 | 25 | 18 | 4 | 5 | 9 | 18 | 27 | -2 | 43 |
| 7 | Wil | 36 | 10 | 9 | 17 | 43 | 52 | 18 | 8 | 5 | 5 | 28 | 19 | 18 | 2 | 4 | 12 | 15 | 33 | -9 | 39 |
| 8 | Kriens | 36 | 9 | 11 | 16 | 40 | 48 | 18 | 4 | 7 | 7 | 23 | 23 | 18 | 5 | 4 | 9 | 17 | 25 | -8 | 38 |
| 9 | Neuchâtel Xamax | 36 | 10 | 6 | 20 | 36 | 58 | 18 | 7 | 3 | 8 | 21 | 24 | 18 | 3 | 3 | 12 | 15 | 34 | -22 | 36 |
| 10 | Chiasso | 36 | 9 | 9 | 18 | 35 | 60 | 18 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 20 | 23 | 18 | 2 | 3 | 13 | 15 | 37 | -25 | 36 |