The last international break of the year has come and gone, and the run-up to Christmas promises to be a busy one for VfL Wolfsburg, with two matches most weeks. First up, the Wolves head to Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday 23 November (kick-off 15:30 CET). The two teams are neck and neck in the table, with Eintracht one place ahead of VfL in ninth. Both teams are coming off a defeat, Wolfsburg going down 2-0 to Leverkusen and Frankfurt losing 1-0 at Freiburg.
VfL head coach Oliver Glasner will have plenty of players back to bolster his options for the trip to the Commerzbank-Arena, where the hosts have been a force to be reckoned with this season. The Eagles lead the home league table with 14 points and, along with Borussia Dortmund, are the only team still unbeaten on home turf.
More facts and figures
Maximilian Arnold is in line to play his 200th Bundesliga match against Frankfurt on Saturday. The 25-year-old midfielder will be by far and away the youngest player to reach this mark for Wolfsburg, for whom he has made all of his previous 199 appearances. Diego Benaglio (259) and Marcel Schäfer (256) are the only two previous players to have hit the 200-game mark in the Bundesliga for the club.
Wolfsburg have won exactly half (17) of their 34 Bundesliga matches against Eintracht Frankfurt (11 draws, six defeats).
Eintracht have picked up an average of 0.85 points per match against VfL, fewer than against any other current Bundesliga club.
SGE have lost their last three Bundesliga matches at home to the Wolves, scoring just one goal in the process. This is Eintracht’s longest stretch without managing a point at home against any of their Bundesliga rivals.
It was a case of ‘after the Lord Mayor’s show’ for Frankfurt earlier this month. Their 5-1 win over Bayern Munich was followed by a 1-0 loss away to Freiburg, and the Hesse club are yet to manage back-to-back league wins this term.
Taking current Bundesliga sides who they have faced at least five times, the Wolves’ second-best average points per game is against the Eagles (1.8). Only against Fortuna Düsseldorf (2.2) have they fared better to date.
Wolfsburg have failed to find the net in their last three Bundesliga matches for the first time since March 2018. The last time VfL went any longer without a goal was in September/October 2012 (four matches).
