On Saturday, February 3rd (kick-off 15:30 CET), the 21st match-day of the Bundesliga campaign, the Wolves take on VfB Stuttgart, as they look to “win two in a row” for the first time this season, as head-coach Martin Schmidt explained at the pre-match press conference on Thursday. Here we have all the important facts and figures going into the tie.
Change of coach at VfB
Following VfB’s 0-2 home defeat to FC Schalke last weekend, coach Hannes Wolf was relieved of his duties at VfB. His successor is Tayfun Korkut, who has signed on with the club until 2019. Korkut was born in Stuttgart.
Familiar faces
There will be players on both sides facing their former employers this Saturday afternoon: Daniel Didavi made a total of 125 Bundesliga appearances for the Swabians. Josip Brekalo was on loan in Stuttgart during 2017 and won promotion back to the top-flight with VfB. On the other side there will be Mario Gomez, who was in Wolfsburg until the winter-break. Stuttgart’s captain Christian Gentner celebrated winning the German championship with VfL in 2009.
Comments from the opponents
New VfB head-coach Tayfun Korkut spoke at the pre-match press conference in Stuttgart about the Wolves: „VfL are well-organised, very solid, compact and have extremely impressive individual quality within the team. However, we don’t want to orientate too much on our opponents – we are our own top priority.“
The prior record against VfB
Bundesliga clashes: 17 VfL wins, 5 draws, 17 defeats, 61:54 goal-difference
Bundesliga home games: 12 VfL wins, 2 draws, 5 defeats, 36:21 goal-difference
