Borussia Dortmund Vs Wolfsburg: Preview, Prediction, Team News, And Possible Lineups
Borussia Dortmund will hope to make it three wins out of three as they face twelfth-place Bundesliga side, Wolfsburg, at their famous home, reports Sports Illustrated.
Dortmund sacked Peter Bosch after the winless streak stretched to 12 games. Despite making a great start to the season, BVB failed miserably in the latter stages of the first half of the season. Former FC Cologne manager, Peter Stoger, was appointed as the head coach for the remainder of the season.
After his appointment, BVB went on to win back to back league games against Mainz and Hoffenheim – a surprising turn of events given Stoger’s disappointing run of form in Cologne. They are now placed third in the league table, and as Bundesliga returns, the fans and board of directors will be hoping for an improved performances, from both the manager and the players. Dortmund has a great opportunity to keep the momentum up with a win over Wolfsburg at home.
Wolfsburg is, at the moment, just four points clear off the relegation zone. They finished 16th last season avoiding relegation by a few points. The Wolves would not want to relive such a scenario again. For that, they have to make a commitment and start the year right by trying to salvage at least a point from this difficult clash.
BVB’s last competitive game was against their arch-rivals, Bayern Munich, in DFB-Pokal Round of 16. They lost the match 2-1 as Bayern progressed to the quarterfinals. Jerome Boateng and Thomas Muller found the net to give Bayern a deserved 2-0 lead just before halftime. Yarmolenko pulled one back for the visitors after some lovely bit of skill by Shinji Kagawa, but that turned out insufficient for Borussia as they lost Der Klassiker for the second time this season.
Meanwhile, Wolfsburg lost their last league game 1-0 away to FC Cologne, as Sky Sports reports. Christian Clemens scored the only goal of the night after a beautiful assist from Milos Jojic. They defeated Nurnberg 2-0 in Round of 16 of DFB-Pokal and advanced to the quarterfinals right after this match.
Head-To-Head
Matchday 1 of the season featured the reverse fixture between these two teams. Dortmund won the game fair and square with a 3-0 victory and made a dream start to the season. Even though things aren’t so well for Dortmund at the moment, they have undoubtedly been the better among the two. Wolfsburg has defeated the Yellow-Blacks only once in their last six meetings at Induna Park(D1), that win coming in the final of DFB Pokal where they came from back to win the cup with a 3-1 margin.
Team News
Stoger’s side has a lot of injuries to deal with heading into this match, as per Transfermarkt. They will be without Christian Pulisic and Guerreiro as both suffered knocks in the Spanish training camp last week. Marco Reus remains sidelined with a cruciate ligament injury. Philipp, Schmelzer, and Durm are a few more names who will most likely miss this match.
For the Wolves, John Brooks is set to miss out this match with a toe injury while Jeffery Brum is also out injured (knee). Martin Schmidt will have a hard time finding a replacement for these two and given the attacking prowess that Dortmund possesses, a myriad of things depends upon the Swiss Manager.
Borussia Dortmund Vs Wolfsburg Predicted Lineups
BVB Probable Starting XI (4-3-3)
Burki (GK)
Toljan (RB), Toprak (CB), Papastathopoulos (CB), Piszczek(LB)
Dahoud (CM), Gotze (CM), Weigh (CM)
Pulisic (RF), Aubameyang (CF), Yarmolenko (LF)
Wolfsburg Probable Starting XI (4-2-3-1)
Casteels (GK)
Verhaegh (RB), Uduokhai (CB), Knoche (CB), Tisserand (LB)
Arnold (CDM), Guilavogui (CB)
Brekalo (RWF), Didavi (CAM), Malli (LWF)
Origi(ST)
Match Prediction
Borussia Dortmund started the season with some impressive results. Things haven’t turned out so well since then. A win over Wolfsburg, in front of their faithful, will provide them with much-needed confidence. Wolfsburg looks hopeful of turning things around this year, and this is a perfect opportunity to do so.
