Wolfsburg vs Mainz 05 16/02/19

16 February 2019

The two unpredictable teams are set to face-off at the Volkswagen Arena as Wolfsburg take on Mainz 05.

Wolfsburg’s impressive run of form in the closing stage of the first half of the season that (W5, D1) has fired them to the Europe League promotion zone. However, the hosts have struggled to maintain the same level of performance at the beginning of 2019, securing just one triumph in four Bundesliga clashes after the Christmas break (W1, D1, L2). Currently trailing sixth-placed Bayer Leverkusen by one point, the Wolves are still the candidates to qualify for the Europa League, but they need a victory here to keep up the pace with the Company XI. A potential worry for Bruno Labbadia is his team’s indifferent home form (W3, D3, L4) and the fact they are dealing with a negative -4 goal difference (S13, C17).

On the other hand, the visitors come into this meeting off the back of two successive Bundesliga losses in which they’ve scored just one goal while conceding eight in the process. Due to a lot of ups and downs, Die Nullfünfer have picked up two wins and suffered as many defeats on their last five BL road trips (W2, D1, L2). In that sequence, Sandro Schwarz’s players have conceded ten goals, managing just one clean slate in the process. Mainz’s principal problem when it comes to their road outings concerns their poor attacking displays that have seen them failed to hit the back of the net on four of ten away games while scoring 2+ match goals only twice. Another potential setback for the visitors is that they are yet to beat better-placed teams when playing away from home, as all of their three road wins came against the sides from the bottom half of the table.