Wolfsburg vs. Leipzig preview: Die roten Bullen are aiming for 3rd place

RB Leipzig are determined to get back to 3rd place in the Bundesliga under new coach Zsolt Lőw when they travel to Volkswagen Arena for Friday’s meeting with Wolfsburg and former coach Ralph Hasenhüttl.

Wolfsburg and Leipzig are going to start off Bundesliga matchday 29 when they meet in the Volkswagen Arena on Friday night. Can die roten Bullen come back to compete for 3rd place in the Bundesliga under Zsolt Löw?

Wolfsburg

Recent injury problems have taken a toll on Ralph Hasenhüttl’s team: only 1 win in the last 7 games is not enough to fulfill the high expectations set at the start of the season.

What hurts most is that Wolfsburg have played teams from the relegation zone during those 7 games (Heidenheim, Union Berlin, St. Pauli, Bochum) and only came away with 2 out of 12 possible points – not enough to reward themselves for great games against the likes of Leverkusen (draw), Frankfurt (draw) and Stuttgart (win).

After having a total of 8 players unavailable for last week’s 0-1 defeat against Union Berlin, coach Ralph Hasenhüttl can most likely count on at least one of his injured centre-backs to return against Leipzig:

“There is good news regarding Denis Vavro and Konstantinos Koulierakis. It’s possible that at least one of them will be fit in time for the game,” Hasenhüttl revealed on the press conference for the game.

But there are problems not just in the defense for Wolfsburg: die Wölfe haven’t scored a goal in the last 3 games, meaning that their fans haven’t celebrated a goal since the 8th of March – over one month ago!

What could be considered a silver lining is the pattern of the recent outcomes of the duels between Wolfsburg and Leipzig: both teams won 3 of their last 6 matches against the other – and did so by taking turns. Leipzig won the last match 1-0 which theoretically points to a Wolfsburg win if both teams want to keep the streak going; but of course, Leipzig will want to break said streak this time around.

Team News

The hosts will be unable to call upon the services of Mattias Svanberg, Mathys Angély, Rogério, Sebastiaan Bornauw, Lovro Majer and Bartosz Białek. Konstantinos Koulierakis and/or Denis Vavro could return to the squad against RB Leipzig.

RB Leipzig

After getting eliminated from the DFB-Pokal by Stuttgart, Leizig were able to show a good reaction under new coach Zsolt Löw against Hoffenheim last week: Die roten Bullen won the game 3-1.

Coming up against Wolfsburg on Friday, it will now be a reunion with former coach Ralph Hasenhüttl; Löw had the following to say about the Austrian:

“Ralph is not only a great coach but also a fantastic guy. I’ve gotten to know lots of people in football, but he’s one of the best guys I’ve met. We had a fantastic time together in Leipzig – we came second behind Bayern in 2016/17.”

“We decided to go our separate ways after our second season, though we’ve never lost touch. We speak on the phone two or three times a year. We will always be friends but we are opponents for 90 minutes on Friday.”

It feels like Leipzig are in a confusing situation: the unexpected exits in the Champions League and DFB-Pokal have ended the long tenure of Marco Rose at the club and RB is now looking towards next season and are evaluating who could lead them into the future.

Como’s Cesc Fàbregas and St. Pauli’s Alexander Blessin have reportedly been scouted by RB Leipzig officials, but there are no concrete talks happening at this moment in time. Should Zsolt Löw turn out to be a great fit for the club over the next few games, maybe he could be Leipzig’s solution for the head coach position.

Either way, Leipzig’s only focus for the current season should be to finish behind Bayern and Leverkusen in 3rd place, securing another year of Champions League football in the process.

Leipzig currently sit in 5th place, just 3 points behind Frankfurt in 3rd and 1 point behind Mainz in 4th. Yet, their biggest rival could turn out to be a rejuvenated BVB team which won their last 2 Bundesliga games in convincing fashion.

While the first season finish with Jürgen Klopp as global head of soccer at Red Bull won’t be as satisfying as many in the club would have hoped it to be, it’s in their own hands now to make the best out of the remaining few games – let’s see if they can get rolling with another win against Wolfsburg on Friday.

Team News

The guests will be unable to call upon the services of Benjamin Henrichs, Assan Ouedraogo, Antonio Nusa and Xaver Schlager.