Preview: Wolfsburg vs. Borussia Dortmund - prediction, team news, lineups

The visitors, meanwhile, can win their fourth successive Bundesliga match as they look to keep within three points of league leaders Bayern Munich.

Match preview

After enduring a difficult start under Niko Kovac, who joined the club during the summer after being sacked by Monaco at the start of 2022, Wolfsburg have recovered by putting together an unbeaten run of seven games in all competitions since returning from September's international break.

Four wins and three draws within that run have seen the Wolves move up to 11th in the table while also progressing into the DFB-Pokal third round, with Kovac's side securing an impressive 3-0 win away to Mainz 05 on Saturday.

Clearly, Wolfsburg are an increasingly potent outfit having bagged 15 goals across their last six matches, with six of their players scoring two or three league goals already this season, illustrating that they like to share the goals around.

Having lost 2-0 to Bayern and RB Leipzig already this season, though, they are arguably lacking a statement win under the Croatian's tenure so far, with the 51-year-old hoping that changes against Dortmund on Tuesday.

Dortmund's form has significantly improved in recent weeks, too, with three consecutive victories helping them keep pace with Bayern towards the top of the table.

Edin Terzic's side ran out comfortable 3-0 winners against struggling VfL Bochum at Westfalenstadion on Saturday, with goals from teenagers Giovanni Reyna and Youssoufa Moukoko (two) ensuring all three points were essentially secured before half time.

Indeed, both teams appeared to shake hands on the outcome after coming out from the tunnel for the second half, with the hosts failing to muster a single shot on target ahead of a tricky trip to Lower Saxony in midweek.

Terzic will hope the energy that his players managed to spare will pay dividends on Tuesday, but he will be more than aware that his side will need to be close to their best if they are to end their forthcoming opponents' impressive unbeaten run.

Wolfsburg Bundesliga form:

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Wolfsburg form (all competitions):

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Borussia Dortmund Bundesliga form:

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Borussia Dortmund form (all competitions):

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Team News

Wolfsburg will remain without Kevin Paredes, Bartol Franjic and Max Kruse through injury, but otherwise Kovac appears to have a full squad to select from against Dortmund.

The former Bayern boss is unlikely to make any changes to the starting XI which has won without conceding in each of their last two matches, with Ridle Baku hoping to continue to provide an attacking outlet from right-back having scored in both victories.

Dortmund, meanwhile, will travel without Sebastien Haller, Marius Wolf, Mahmoud Dahoud, Mateu Morey, Jamie Bynoe-Gittens, Thomas Meunier and Tim Rothe, with Terzic's ability to rotate reduced as a result.

However, club captain Marco Reus did feature from the bench against Bochum after recovering from an injury setback, with Anthony Modeste, Thorgan Hazard and Karim Adeyemi all hoping for recalls to the starting XI having also been brought on during the win.

Wolfsburg possible starting lineup:

Casteels; Baku, Bornauw, Van de Ven, Otavio; Wimmer, F. Nmecha, Arnold, Gerhardt, Kaminski; L. Nmecha

Borussia Dortmund possible starting lineup:

Kobel; Sule, Hummels, Schlotterbeck, Guerreiro; Bellingham, Can; Adeyemi, Brandt, Reyna; Moukoko

We say: Wolfsburg 1-2 Borussia Dortmund

We expect a closely fought affair between two in-form teams in Lower Saxony on Tuesday.

Wolfsburg have been in great goalscoring form of late and should be able to continue that against Dortmund, but we expect the visitors to edge it in the end.

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