VfL Wolfsburg vs. SC Paderborn 07 preview: Relegation duel at Volkswagen Arena

VFL WOLFSBURG

The Bundesliga side in the promotion-relegation playoff this year is VfL Wolfsburg (7-8-19, 16th Bundesliga), who have never been relegated from the top tier of German football. This is their second playoff, having faced Niedersachsen rivals Eintracht Braunschweig in the 2016/17 season - winning both matches 1-0 (2-0 on aggregate) on goals from Mario Gómez and Vierinha.

In that 2016/17 campaign, Dieter Hecking coached Die Wölfe for the first two months of the season before being relieved of his duties with a 1-3-3 record early in the campaign. Hecking returned to the club for a second spell this season - coaching the last two months after Paul Simonis and Daniel Bauer were unsuccessful in their durations at the Niedersachsen club.

Since taking charge at Volkswagen Arena on a temporary contract that expires in June, Hecking is 2-3-4 through nine matches - with respectable performances against the likes of FC Bayern München (0-1), SC Freiburg (1-1), and Eintracht Frankfurt (1-2), plus a pair of victories against 1. FC Union Berlin (2-1) and FC St. Pauli (3-1). The latter victory, which happened this past Saturday, allowed Hecking to complete his first objective, to avoid direct relegation to the second tier of German football.

Despite performances in recent weeks that have been progressively getting better, as some of the players echoed in their post-match interviews following the victory in Hamburg, Wolfsburg have failed to score in three of their four home matches - with the most recent goal to the hosts at Volkswagen Arena having come off the boot of Dženan Pejčinović in the final minutes of the 1-2 defeat to Frankfurt on 11. April.

A matchup with Paderborn in the playoff brings Hecking’s side a lot of hope, though. Wolfsburg are 3-2-2 against Paderborn all-time, with Die Wölfe unbeaten in their four competitive Bundesliga meetings (2-2-0). The most recent such meeting was in February 2020, a 4-2 result on goals from Robin Knoche, Daniel Ginczek (twice), and Maximilian Arnold. This is especially when compared to their head-to-head record with the Hannover 96 side that they could have faced, 8-4-8 in 20 meetings with their last two friendlies and Bundesliga matches having been split.

Three key players to watch on VfL Wolfsburg are Christian Eriksen (31 appearances - 3 goals, 9 assists), Denmark’s record goalscorer and the player with most goal involvements in his first season at Volkswagen Arena; Dženan Pejčinović (30 appearances - 8 goals), who has scored in three of his last six matches; and Konstantinos Koulierakis (29 appearances - 4 goals, 1 assist), who scored two set-piece headers in his last three matches and three in the last ten.

Team News:

Brazilian defensive midfielder Vinícius Souza picked up his fifth yellow card of the season in the eighteenth minute of the club’s 3-1 victory against FC St. Pauli, and is thus suspended for this match. He will be available for the second leg at Home Deluxe Arena next Tuesday.

Austrian winger Patrick Wimmer (muscle) continues to be week-to-week and it is unknown whether he will be able to play. Brazilian defender Rogério (fitness), Brazilian defender Cleiton Santos (ankle), Dutch centre-back Jenson Seelt (knee), German right-back Kilian Fischer (thigh), and Danish striker Jonas Wind (muscle) will all be absent from the squad until the end of the month.

German defensive midfielder and long-time captain Maximilian Arnold (groin) will be unavailable until the 2026/27 preseason - as is Hungarian midfielder Bence Dárdai (anterior cruciate ligament), who will return around the time of the first pre-season match.

Projected XI (3-5-2): Grabara - Koulierakis, Vavro, Belocian - Mæhle, Eriksen, Gerhardt, Svanberg, Kumbedi - Pejčinović, Daghim.

SC PADERBORN 07

On the other side of the field is SC Paderborn 07 (18-8-8, 3rd 2. Bundesliga), led by 39-year-old Ralf Kettemann in his debut season at the helm of a main team. Paderborn beat out Wolfsburg’s other Niedersachsen rivals Hannover 96 to third in the 2. Bundesliga table on the final day of the season, with a 2-0 win against SV Darmstadt 98 and a Hannover 3-3 draw with 1. FC Nürnberg.

That victory was the first after four winless matches (0-2-2), with Paderborn facing both of the directly-promoted sides - FC Schalke 04 (2-3) and SV Elversberg (1-5) - in that span. Nevertheless, they look to make their first promotion to the Bundesliga since the 2018/19 season, when they finished second in the 2. Bundesliga table - only to 1. FC Köln.

Paderborn have had two trips to the Bundesliga in their 119-year history, both of which ended in a last-place finish and a drop back to the second division (31 pts 2014/15, 20 pts 2019/20). In their first Bundesliga relegation, they dropped to 3. Liga the following season and spent two years there before making two consecutive promotions back to the top level at the end of the decade.

Despite the fact that both sides are in different divisions, the two met in a friendly at AOK-Stadion on 3. September of last year, with Paderborn the victors by a 2-1 result on goals from Aaron Bätzner and Marco Wörner; Jonas Wind scored the only goal for Wolfsburg that afternoon. Due to the match being during the international break, a few key players were absent for the hosts - with academy players such as Pharrell Hensel, Trevor Benedict, and Elia Dittrich getting starting appearances as part of Paul Simonis’ side at the time.

Notable statistics surrounding the club are that in seven of their twelve 2. Bundesliga matches in the 2025/26 season, Paderborn have come back and picked up a win or draw after conceding the first goal (4-3-5); additionally, the Nordrhein-Westfalen side have a 8-5-4 record away this season, with 29 points out of a potential 51 - second-best in the league, and only by four points to Hannover.

Three notable players to watch for the visitors are Filip Bilbija (29 appearances - 15 goals, 3 assists), whose contract expires at the end of June and is being linked to SV Werder Bremen for a move this summer; Laurin Curda (32 appearances - 7 goals, 7 assists), the club’s main right-back / right midfielder who is currently the club’s second-top scorer; and Mika Baur (33 appearances - 4 goals, 5 assists), who is responsible for the most crosses this season after the injured Raphael Obermair.

Team News:

Paderborn have only two injuries in their squad ahead of the first leg of this promotion-relegation tie.

German defensive midfielder Mika Baur will be suspended for the opening match after picking up his fifth yellow card of the season in the match in Darmstadt.

Filipino left-back Raphael Obermair (achilles tendon), tied for third in scoring in the 2025/26 season, will return to the main squad in mid-July. German centre-back Marcel Hoffmeier (anterior cruciate ligament) will return to the squad after the club’s first preseason match in late July.

Projected XI (3-4-2-1): Seimen - Brackelmann, Scheller, F. Götze - Curda, Castañeda, Hansen, Sticker - Bilbija, Müller - Marino