VfL Wolfsburg (10-8-8) host FC Heidenheim (5-4-17) at the Volkswagen Arena. Wolfsburg are in the middle of the battle for European spots; Heidenheim are battling to avoid relegation.
| Patrick Mainka and Jonas Föhrenbach shake hands after the match with VfL Wolfsburg, 20. January 2024. | (Photo by Sebastian Widmann / Getty Images) |
VFL WOLFSBURG
After having a decent seven-match undefeated streak in Bundesliga competition, VfL Wolfsburg (10-8-8, 8th) ran into FC Augsburg, who had a nine-match undefeated streak, in their most recent match two weeks ago. Despite Wolfsburg being the better team in multiple statistical categories, it was the goal from Phillip Tietz in the fifty-third minute, off a long ball from Cédric Zesiger (who is on loan from Wolfsburg), that made the difference.
Ralph Hasenhüttl’s side have been able to go back to the drawing board while part of the main team was on international duty; it should be mentioned that VfL Wolfsburg have failed to win their last three matches against teams currently in the bottom-five of the Bundesliga, their most recent victory being 1-0 against Hoffenheim on 11. January, the goal coming from Mohamed Amoura in the twenty-ninth minute.
However, on the positive side, Die Wölfe have won five of their six matches with Heidenheim all-time since 2008, and opened the scoring in four of them; one of them was a 3-1 win on 10. November, with the goals scored by Yannick Gerhardt, Bence Dárdai, and Tiago Tomás. Hasenhüttl said to the media in a press conference Thursday afternoon that for his club, it is an “important opportunity to take three points” and that the hosts will “seize it with all our might”.
Team News
Mathys Angély (torn muscle fibre), Bartosz Białek (knee), Lovro Majer (torn muscle fibre), Mads Roerslev (heel issues), Rogério (fitness issues), Mattias Svanberg (knee), and Denis Vavro (thigh) will not be taking part in this match. Mohamed Amoura is also suspended following his fifth yellow card of the 2024 / 25 Bundesliga season, which he took at the half-hour mark of the 0-1 defeat in Augsburg.
1. FC HEIDENHEIM 1846
1. FC Heidenheim 1846 (5-4-17, 17th) are on the other side of the Bundesliga table, looking to avoid relegation; currently, they are seventeenth out of eighteen teams in the German top flight, a full six points away from exiting a relegation spot. To go into matchday 29 with a chance of staying out of the relegation zone, they would need to win this match, as well as the Leverkusen match next week, and hope that FC St. Pauli loses to both Bayern and Gladbach.
In both of Heidenheim’s last two matches, they have faced teams in their area of the table and are 1-1-0; the first was a 1-1 draw in Hoffenheim on 9. March, and the following week was a 3-1 victory against Holstein Kiel. Budu Zivzivadze scored in both matches, something that coach Frank Schmidt praised following his second excellent performance.
Speaking of Frank Schmidt, who has served the longest coaching term of anyone in the history of the sport in Germany (having been hired on 17. September 2007), he reaches a new milestone as this is career match 700 for him. Holger Sanwald, chairman of the club, said about Schmidt that he “embodies our values perfectly”, and that “we would not have made Bundesliga or even European competition without him”.
Schmidt, however, does not care if it is an anniversary, stating that “next week is match 701, the anniversary does not mean anything to me. Whether it is match 700, match 2, or match 5, nothing has changed for me. I look forward to every match, the same way I did in Oberliga; the sport has quite captivated me.”
Team News
Only three players will be missing from the main squad this week, two of them due to muscle issues; Mathias Honsak (muscle), Julian Niehues (muscle), and Paul Wanner (illness) are going to be absent.
