Bundesliga 2013-14 | ||
VfB Stuttgart |
vs | VfL Wolfsburg |
ScheduleSaturday, 3 May 2014 at 13:30 GMT / 14:30 UK / 19:00 IST VenueMercedes-Benz Arena (Stuttgart) |
Next Saturday, Wolfsburg will travel to Baden-Württemberg to take on Stuttgart at the Mercedes-Benz Arena for round 33 of Bundesliga, hoping to reach Bayer Leverkusen at the fourth place of the table and thus putting themselves in a good position to grant UEFA Champions League football next season.
After last weekend’s unexpect home draw against Freiburg, Wolfsburg took one step behind on their quest for granting a place at the UEFA Champions League Qualifying round next season. Die Wölfe started at full speed at Volkswagen Arena, after Ivan Perisic’s early goal and went to half-time enjoying that precious advantage. Nevertheless, Freiburg looked far more dangerous on the second half and grabbed the equalizer by Admir Mehmedi at the 61st minute of the match. Nevertheless, Wolfsburg’s Croatian midfielder, Ivan Perisic, scored again just nine minutes after Freiburg’s goal and put his side on the lead once again. The visitors never gave up and obtained the equalizer with a goal by the German young forward Marco Terrazzino with just seven minutes left to the end of the match.
Wolfsburg always looked in control of the match, although they failed to stay focused during some periods of game and ended up allowing what one can call two “silly” goals that prevented the team from passing through Leverkusen at the Bundesliga table.
For Wolfsburg next week’s match, that will certainly not be an easy one against a relegation threatened Stuttgart, Dieter Hecking will probably still not be able to count on the Swiss goalkeeper and team’s captain Diego Benaglio, who is still recovering from a recent injury.
As for Stuttgart, next Saturday’s match will also be of major importance on their battle to avoid relegation. A win against Wolfsburg would grant them a place at Bundesliga next season but a defeat can put them on a delicate position if Hamburger SV win their home match against the current champions - Bayern Munich.
Stuttgart grabbed an important draw at Hannover last weekend and extended their undefeated row to four matches. The team is probably enjoying its best moment of the season and they will certainly be a tough bone for Wolfsburg to chew on next weekend’s match since they want to solve the relegation matter already on the next round, especially since their last match will be against Bayern Munich at Allianz Arena.
For the match against Wolfsburg, Huub Stevens will probably still not be able to count on the midfielders Patrick Funk, Marco Rojas, and Sercan Sararer, all of them still recovering from their respective injuries.
When both sides met at Volkswagen Arena back in December, Wolfsburg hammered Stuttgart 3-1 thanks to goals from Ricardo Rodríguez, Diego, and Perisic. Notwithstanding, next Saturday’s match will certainly not be that easy for Die Wölfe and could go either way given all of the circumstances mentioned above.
Stuttgart
Stats: W-8 L-16 D-8
Recent Form - LWDWD
Wolfsburg
Stats: W-16 L-10 D-6
Recent Form - WLWWD
Possible Line-ups
Stuttgart (4-2-3-1) – Ulreich - Schwaab - Rüdiger - Niedermeier - Boka - Gruezo - Gentner - Didavi - Traoré - Harnik - Cacau
Wolfsburg (4-2-3-1) - Grün - Träsch - Naldo - Knoche - Rodriguez - Medojevic - Polak - Perisic - De Bruyne - Arnold - Olic
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