Wolfsburg vs Hoffenheim Prediction, Betting Tips & Preview

Preview

Haydn Cunningham Oct 13, 2015 @ 11:01 am

Wolfsburg are starting to prove the pundits right at the start of the year when they predicted it may be a struggle for them this season after the loss of Kevin De Bruyne who was their star man last year and had a huge contribution to their runners up spot behind Bayern Munich. Although they received a fortune for the Belgian playmaker and replaced him with Julian Draxler from Schalke who hasn’t quite set the Wolfsburg fans pulses racing as De Bruyne once did. Dieter Hecking’s side haven’t won in their last 4 matches and 3 of them ended with defeats on their travels to Bayern Munich, Manchester United and Borussia Monchengladbach. A 1-1 draw with Hannover 96 was also a sour note as their opponents were bottom when they faced them. 

In similar circumstances to Wolfsburg, Hoffenheim also lost their main man as Roberto Firmino left for Liverpool. They managed to keep hold of young German star, Kevin Volland but his future looks bleak with the club languishing in 15^th and just above the relegation play-off positions. They had only picked up 1 point from their opening 5 Bundesliga games but a mini revival in their past 3 games has seen them pick up 5 points with draws against Stuttgart and Borussia Dortmund and also managed their first victory of the season against Augsburg. Hoffenheim have been solely reliant on Volland who has scored 5 in 8 Bundesliga games and is the only striker at the club to net in the league which needs addressing by manager Markus Gisdol.

Wolfsburg’s recent troubles have been matched by their main sponsor Volkswagen who have been engulfed in problems. It has the commercial managers at Wolfsburg in a great deal of concern and their trying to hammer out a deal with Nike. It might bring back some success for Wolfsburg as their last Bundesliga title came back in the 2008/2009 campaign where Nike were also their sponsors.

The Volkswagen Arena has brought the best out of the home side as they’ve won 4 out of 5 games in front of their own fans and the other being the recent draw against Hannover. Their opponents have scored a lot of their goals in the first 15 minutes of Bundesliga games and Wolfsburg will need to be switched on from the off.

Vieirinha will be missing for the home side and the pint-sized midfielder is a big loss for Wolfsburg and hasn’t featured for them since the end of August. Luis Gustavo’s recent injury also saw him miss the past couple of games but the Brazilian midfielder is likely to return. Hoffenheim would’ve kept a close eye on Volland’s commitments with the German national set up but played just the final few minutes in their defeat to Republic of Ireland.

Wolfsburg 

Stats: W-3 L-2 D-3

Recent Form - WLDLL

Hoffenheim

Stats: W-1 L-4 D-3

Recent Form – LLDWD

Head-to-head record:

Possible Line-ups

Wolfsburg (4-2-3-1) – Benaglio, Jung, Naldo, Dante, Rodriguez, Guilavogui, Luis Gustavo, Schurrle, Arnold, Caligiuri, Dost.

Hoffenheim (4-4-2) – Baumann, Kaderabek, Sule, Bicakcic, Toljan, Rudy, Schwegler, Polanski, Schmid, Volland, Vargas

Injury List/Suspended Players

Wolfsburg – Vieirinha (inj), Casteels (inj).

Hoffenheim – Elyounoussi (inj).

League Positions