Prediction: Augsburg vs Wolfsburg

Verdict: Draw

Best odds: 5/2

Bookmaker: William Hill

More than two months aftere the last game was played, the 2019/20 season in the German Bundesliga is set to continue this weekend with a full fixture list being played within the 26th round of the campaign. All games will be played behind closed doors.

Augsburg are set to welcome Wolfsburg to the Augsburg Arena (also known as the WWK Arena) on Saturday afternoon, in a game that could prove very important for both sides, but in rather different circumstances.

Augsburg

At the time when the Covid-19 pandemic caused the football in the German top flight to stop back in March, Augsburg had accumulated 27 points from 25 games, which put them in the 14th place in the table. That’s just five more than Fortuna Dusseldorf in 16th, the place leading to the relegation play-offs. With 11 rounds to go, it’s quite clear that their survival in the league is far from secured and they will need all the points they can get between now and the end of this controversial season.

Form is, naturally, very hard to judge after a two-month break from games, but for what it’s worth, Augsburg didn’t exactly excel in their last couple of matches. From their last six league outings, they won one, drew one, and lost four. What’s more, that poor run includes being thrashed 5-0 at the hands of Eintracht Frankfurt.

Team News

The forced break will have done at least some good for all clubs, given that the players who had been suffering from minor injury issues were given plenty of time to heal. However, the home side will be without head coach Heikko Herlich for this game, after the boss broke the quarantine rules by leaving the team hotel, apparently to buy toothpaste. As relayed by The Guardian, he admitted to the offence and though he pointed out that he had taken all the usual hygienic precautions, he said it was a mistake.

“In this situation I did not live up to my role model function towards my team and the public. I will therefore be consistent and stand by my mistake. Because of this mistake I will not lead the training tomorrow and I will not coach the team in the match against Wolfsburg on Saturday,” he said.

Apart from their head coach, Augsburg will also be missing defender Simon Asta, who has suffered an ACL rupture and won’t be back any time soon.

Wolfsburg

As has been said above, the visitors in this game are in a different situation regarding their placement on the table. They travel to Augsburg sitting in seventh place with 36 points from the previous 25 rounds, and look set to battle it out with Schalke 04 (37 points) for a place in next season’s Europa League. They don’t have much chance of doing better than that, given that Bayer Leverkusen in fifth have ten points more than Schalke.

Unlike that of Augsburg, Wolfsburg were on fine form before the season was put on hold. They won three and drew as many from their last top-flight encounters, and it will be interesting to see if the long break will have affected their focus.

Team News

Head coach Oliver Glasner won’t be able to call upon his team’s top scorer Wout Weghorst. The 6’6″ striker has so far netted 11 goals in 24 Bundesliga appearances in 2019/20, but he picked up his fifth yellow card of the season in the last game and is now suspended for the Augsburg trip. It means it’s likely that either Admir Mehmedi or Daniel Ginczek (or both) will lead the Wolfsburg attacking line in this match.

Conclusion

A glance at the table and the recent matches of these two teams would point to Wolfsburg as the clear favorites to win, but it could all count for nothing given that they played their last games over two months ago. And with their main attacking threat out of contention, the visitors could struggle more than they would otherwise on this particular trip.

Verdict: Draw

Best odds: 5/2

Bookmaker: William Hill