Wolfsburg host Union Berlin on Sunday evening in a meeting between two Bundesliga teams that have tailed off after fast starts to the new year.

Niko Kovac's side have had a full week to recover from a 2-2 draw with Eintracht Frankfurt last Sunday, while Union duked out an even wilder 3-3 thriller with Union SG in the Europa League on Thursday evening.

Match preview

Wolfsburg were two points off fourth spot as recently as the final week of January after beginning the year with 6-0 and 5-0 routs of Freiburg and Hertha Berlin, but a run of one win from their last six league games has seen Kovac's side slip eight points behind the pace for Champions League football.

Across their last half-dozen league matches, Wolfsburg have conceded 11 goals - the Saxony outfit only shipped 10 in their previous 12 top-flight games.

The Wolves stumbled at another hurdle when they met fellow European challengers Frankfurt last weekend, taking the lead before the Randal Kolo Muani-inspired visitors struck twice in the first half - top scorer Yannick Gerhardt headed in a set piece to ensure Wolfsburg had a share of the spoils, but a point hardly helped either team with their continental ambitions.

Despite their recent struggles, Wolfsburg are set up to combat one of Union's chief threats; the capital club may have scored the most set-piece goals in the Bundesliga this season, but the Wolves have the joint-best record when defending dead balls this term.

Union's famed and feared set-piece deliveries have helped Urs Fischer's side master the fine margins in a historic campaign; Union go into the weekend sitting third in the club's fourth-ever season of Bundesliga football - as recently as 2006, Union were playing in Germany's fourth tier, now they are on course for Champions League qualification.

Since Fischer was appointed in 2018, every season he has completed has been the club's most successful since the reunification of Germany; leading Union to their first-ever Bundesliga promotion in his maiden campaign before steadily improving the club's league position in each top-flight season.

Fischer's side had been coping well with the balancing act of European and domestic football during the group stage but the effects of the Thursday-Sunday shift have begun to emerge in recent weeks; after a run of five consecutive league wins to start the new year, Union have taken two points from the last three Bundesliga matches without scoring since the return of the Europa League.

Union will surely be feeling the effects of a helter-skelter contest against Belgian side Union SG on Thursday; the capital club fell behind on three separate occasions, equalising through Josip Juranovic's superb free kick, Robin Knoche's penalty rebound and finally via Sven Michel in the 89th minute.

Wolfsburg and Union have already met on two previous occasions this season, with Union scoring twice in a pair of victories in the league and cup - however, both of those fixtures took place in Berlin, and Union have never beaten Wolfsburg in Saxony, losing all four of their away trips without scoring a single goal.

Team News

Kovac will have to do without Wolfsburg's suspended captain Maximilian Arnold this weekend, while Kilian Fischer and Bartol Franjic are both doubts with muscular injuries.

Centre-back Maxence Lacroix sprained his knee in the second half of Wolfsburg's draw with Frankfurt last weekend, potentially sidelining the Frenchman until April.

Backup goalkeeper Pavao Pervan's only appearance of the season was in the 2-1 DFB Pokal defeat to Union in January, but the Austrian international is highly unlikely to make the bench, let alone the starting XI, on Sunday while he nurses a back problem.

Union midfielder Andras Schafer has only made two league appearances since Halloween and is expected to remain sidelined this weekend with the same troublesome foot injury.

Jerome Roussillon, who joined Union from Wolfsburg in January, will have to overcome a knock which has sidelined the wing-back this month if he is to make an appearance against his former employers.

Ten Union players started in the goalless draw against FC Koln last weekend and five days later in the Europa League - Fischer is not a huge advocate of rotation, but he may have to make one or two more tweaks with the all-important second leg in Belgium to come next week.

Wolfsburg possible starting lineup:
Casteels; Baku, Bornauw, Van de Ven, Otavio; Svanberg, Nmecha, Gerhardt; Kaminski, Marmoush, Wimmer

Union Berlin possible starting lineup:
Ronnow; Doekhi, Knoche, Leite; Trimmel, Laidouni, Khedira, Thorsby, Giesselmann; Becker, Behrens

We say: Wolfsburg 1-0 Union Berlin

Neither side have enjoyed particularly inspiring runs of form recently, but Wolfsburg's home advantage, which has had a particularly noticeable effect on Union over the years, gives them the slight edge in what could well be a tight contest on Sunday.


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