Wolfsburg vs. Eintracht Frankfurt preview: Hosts unbeaten on home turf
Wolfsburg will look to begin the Bundesliga season with a third consecutive home win when they face Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday.
Wolfsburg
Seventh-placed Wolfsburg have made an encouraging start to the season, having picked up nine points from their opening five games. After kicking off the campaign with consecutive wins over Heidenheim and Köln, Wolfsburg experienced their first defeat of the season on matchday three, as they fell to a 3-1 away defeat against Hoffenheim.
Although they bounced back with a narrow 2-1 home win over Union Berlin, Wolfsburg were unable to take anything from last weekend’s trip to Signal Iduna Park. Niko Kovac’s side kept Borussia Dortmund at bay for over an hour before Marco Reus scored the decisive goal to ensure Wolfsburg returned home empty-handed.
After losing back-to-back away matches, die Wölfe will be looking forward to returning to the Volkswagen Arena, where they have won both of their games this season. After scoring in the opening 15 minutes of both of their home matches against Heidenheim and Union, Wolfsburg will be targeting another fast start on Saturday.
Team News
Kilian Fischer and Lukas Nmecha are both sidelined with knee problems, while Moritz Jenz and Rogério are also ruled out through injury.
Eintracht Frankfurt
After being appointed as Oliver Glasner’s successor, Dino Toppmöller has made a positive impact at Deutsche Bank Park. The Frankfurt boss has managed to avoid defeat in all nine of their competitive matches this season (W4, D5) - a run which includes five Bundesliga matches.
While Frankfurt have proven to be a tough team to beat, Toppmöller will frustrated with their failure to convert draws into victories. After beginning the league campaign with a narrow 1-0 win over Darmstadt, die Adler have gone on to draw four consecutive Bundesliga games, leaving them in eighth position and two points behind Saturday’s opponents.
Frankfurt were involved in three straight 1-1 draws, before they played out a goalless draw with Freiburg last weekend. That result did at least extend Frankfurt’s unbeaten home run to 13 top-flight matches. They will now head on their travels, where they have failed to win in their last 13 Bundesliga away games since winning 2-1 in November’s away meeting with Augsburg.
Team News
Sebastian Rode and Simon Simoni are ruled out with calf and elbow injuries respectively. Meanwhile, there are also doubts surrounding the fitness of Hrvoje Smolčić and Kristijan Jakić.