Soccer Germany Bundesliga 13 March 2023

Wolfsburg vs Union Berlin - Match Preview

Wolfsburg may have turned a corner after ending a five-game winless run by bagging scoring twice in consecutive games (W1, D1), although the suspension of club captain Maximilian Arnold will hurt after his incredible 62 consecutive top-flight appearances. Boss Niko Kovač recently stated that seventh place is the “maximum” his side can achieve, though their 2-2 draw with Frankfurt last time out kept them just five points off the top six heading into this round.

There’s been no shortage of entertainment for the neutral here at the Volkswagen Arena since the Bundesliga restart, with 4.75 goals per match on average across Wolfsburg’s four games at home. A continuation of that trend could be worrying for a Union Berlin side that has never won or even scored a goal here in their short top-flight history (L3).

Urs Fischer’s men did well to pick themselves up from the canvas to equalise three times in a 3-3 draw against Royale Union in their Thursday night Europa League tie, yet that result consigned the overachievers to a third straight game without a victory (D2, L1). The Iron Ones have shown cracks in league action lately as well, picking up just two of the last nine available points which have consequently left them five points off the title pace.

It would be unfair to judge them too harshly given this is just Union’s third top-flight season in club history, but they do need a resurgent performance to end a joint club record three-game scoring drought in the Bundesliga. Wolfsburg will have to keep their discipline if they’re to keep Union from ending that drought, as only two sides have scored more than Union’s 15 league goals from set pieces this season… albeit one of those sides is Wolfsburg (16)!

📋 Players to watch: Yannick Gerhardt could prove to be the catalyst for Wolfsburg’s success after contributing to three of their four goals across the last four rounds (G2, A1). As for Union, defender Josip Juranović ended his side’s two-game competitive goal drought in midweek and impressively has five goal involvements across his last seven appearances (G2, A3).

⚡ Hot stat: Ahead of the round, Union have won a league-high 12 points from losing positions (W4, L5).