Augsburg – Wolfsburg : Preview & Prediction
Augsburg are on fire with three straight Bundesliga wins, impressively beating Schalke 3-2 despite having only ten men on the pitch in the last 20 minutes. Discipline has been a problem for them this season, with only Stuttgart recording more cards than their 24 in the league so far (23 yellow, one red), for an average of three per game.
This makes coach Enrico Maaßen’s job that much more difficult as he already has a long injury list to contend with as he looks to repeat a win like the 3-0 victory he achieved last season when hosting their arch-rivals. They can also take inspiration from their hard-fought 1-0 win at this venue against Bayern Munich last month, which helped them consolidate their mid-table position.
Openly criticizing his players at Wolfsburg by saying that they “weren’t ready to show the basics you need in soccer,” the strategy seemed to have paid off for coach Niko Kovač as the team managed to beat Stuttgart 3-2 in their last outing in order to pull away from the relegation zone. Still, this is their worst start after eight games (G2, E2, P4) since the 2017/18 season, so there is plenty of work to do for the former Bayern coach.
With all five of his official away games this season being won by the team that scored first (G2, P3), he will want his players to respond again and get off on the right foot, although he has yet to score before halftime in away games this season. With one win on rival soil this league season (G1, P3), the Wolves have been very inefficient away from the Volkswagen Arena.
Players to watch: Ermedin Demirovic has scored four goals in Augsburg’s last six Bundesliga matches, three of which were registered in the first 35 minutes. The late winner scored by Yannick Gerhardt against Stuttgart was his third Bundesliga goal in his last four which was the last goal of his respective outing.
Key statistic: Augsburg are the only team yet to concede a goal before the 30th minute in this Bundesliga season.
Augsburg – Wolfsburg : Betting Tips
BTS/YES Odds: 1.75
