The visitors, who are ninth in the table going into Sunday's fixture (kick-off 18:00 CET), have developed into something of a bogey team for VfL in recent years. The Wolves may have managed to regularly pick up points against Bremen at home, losing just one of the eight most recent meetings at the Volkswagen Arena (a 2-1 reverse in 2016/17), but they have only won one point in the last six games (a 1-1 draw at home last season).
Record in sight
If Koen Casteels can keep another clean sheet – as he has done in back-to-back 3-0 wins over the last two weeks – he would equal a club record: the only time VfL have gone three successive games without conceding was at the end of 2014. However, that will be easier said than done, as Sunday's visitors are the only team to have scored in every Bundesliga game so far this season. The Wolves' backline will have to pay particularly close attention to 40-year-old Bremen striker Claudio Pizarro, who has found the net 13 times against VfL over the years. Bayern Munich's Robert Lewandowski is the only player to have scored more often against Wolfsburg (18) than the Peruvian veteran.
Werder unbeaten in 2019
Bremen come into the game yet to suffer defeat since the turn of the year, a run that spans seven games in all competitions, including a DFB Cup win away to Borussia Dortmund. However, they have only picked up ten points in the Bundesliga over that period (two wins, four draws) and as such are currently occupying a mid-table berth. The last time Werder managed such a lengthy unbeaten streak was in their title-winning 2003/04 campaign, when they went 15 games without defeat in the second half of the season.
