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

The hosts, meanwhile, will be hoping to put further distance between themselves and the relegation places.

Match preview

After failing to win any of his first five matches in charge of the Wolves, things have picked up for Niko Kovac in recent weeks, with Wolfsburg taking seven points from their last four games.

His side gained a respectable point away to in-form Augsburg - who had won three games in a row heading into the encounter - last weekend, with Yannick Gerhardt's 27th-minute strike cancelled out by Robert Gumny's equaliser shortly after half-time.

In a fiercely contested match which featured eight yellow cards, 16 corners and 28 shots overall, Kovac would likely have been content to see his side come away from the trip with a point in hand.

Likewise, they may find things tough on Saturday given their forthcoming opponent's amount of attacking firepower, with the former Croatia international perhaps prioritisng maintaining an unbeaten run over winning.

Indeed, despite former Norwich City boss Daniel Farke making an excellent initial impact after taking over as Gladbach manager during the summer, Die Fohlen headed into last Sunday's clash at home against their rivals FC Koln with only one win in their previous five game.

Yet the visitors were blown away in a 5-2 thrashing, which admittedly was majorly helped by Florian Kainz's dismissal on the stroke of half-time, with Ramy Bensebaini converting from the penalty spot to provide Gladbach with a 2-1 lead going into the break.

Gladbach ran riot from there, with Lars Stindl essentially wrapping up their victory in the first minute of the second half, before Bensebaini bagged his second and the in-form Marcus Thuram ensured that he did not miss out on the fun by scoring in injury-time.

With the Bundesliga's top four sides all facing each other in what is being billed as the Bundesliga's 'Super Sunday,' Farke and his players may sense a major opportunity to come away from Lower Saxony having made up some ground on those teams at the top of the table.

Wolfsburg Bundesliga form:

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D

Borussia Monchengladbach Bundesliga form:

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Team News

Wolfsburg may be without Mattias Svanberg and Bartol Franjic due to illness, while Jerome Roussillon and Jonas Wind are ruled out due to Achilles and thigh injuries respectively.

Max Kruse has torn a muscle but was already considered persona non grata after a falling out with Kovac, who may be tempted to restore Lukas Nmecha to his starting XI after the Germany forward returned from a knock to feature from the bench against Augsburg last time out, with his brother Felix Nmecha potentially making way.

Gladbach, meanwhile, are suffering with a serious injury crisis at the moment, with Florian Neuhaus, Christoph Kramer, Hannes Wolf, Ko Itakura and Torben Musel all all unlikely to make the trip to Wolfsburg on Saturday.

Kramer injured an ankle ligament late on against Koln in the only sour note of his side's thumping victory against their rivals, leaving Farke extremely short of options in the engine room should the 2014 World Cup winner miss out as expected.

However, Alassane Plea made his comeback from a calf injury to feature from the bench, meaning club captain Stindl could move inside to the number 10 role in order to allow Plea to start on the left flank.

Wolfsburg possible starting lineup:

Casteels; Baku, Lacroix, Van De Ven, Otavio; Arnold, Guilavogui; Wimmer, Gerhardt, Kaminski; Nmecha

Borussia Monchengladbach possible starting lineup:

Sommer; Scally, Friedrich, Elvedi, Bensebaini; Weigl, Kone; Hofmann, Stindl, Plea; Thuram

We say: Wolfsburg 1-1 Borussia Monchengladbach

With the visitors likely to be missing several key players due to injury, we expect Wolfsburg to extend their unbeaten run to three matches on Saturday.

However, Gladbach's starting XI should be more than strong enough to help them avoid defeat, too, with both sides likely to be content with a share of the spoils.

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