Having collected 10 points from their last four league matches, the Wolves head into their final two games of the calendar year with the wind in their sails. VfL welcome VfB Stuttgart to the Volkswagen Arena in their last home game of 2018 on Tuesday 18 December (kick-off 20:30), before ending the first half of the campaign with a trip to FC Augsburg on Sunday 23 December (kick-off 15:30). As well as calling on his charges to play “power football” against VfB in order to extend their four-match unbeaten run, head coach Bruno Labbadia also addressed the following issues at Monday’s pre-match press conference…
… the personnel situation: “As things stand, every player is available for the game against VfB apart from Ignacio Camacho. Jerome Roussillon was able to train yesterday and Admir Mehmedi has also taken part in training in the last few days. I’m confident he’ll be fit enough to make an appearance on Tuesday.”
… VfL’s current purple patch: “The players have been working very hard from day one, even when we were going through a bad spell in terms of results. It was crucial that we continued to work hard, although good results always help boost your confidence. We’ve been on the right track since the start of the season and aren’t getting carried away with the last couple of games. On the contrary, we’re always completely focused on our next match.”
… the Wolves’ upcoming opponents: “Stuttgart played two very different halves in their last game [a 2-1 victory over Hertha Berlin]. They barely managed to get a foothold on proceedings in the first half, but played very well in the second and deserved to win the game. Stuttgart have quality, which is why they nearly managed to qualify for Europe in the second half of last season - with pretty much the same squad they have now. We know it’s going to be another tough game tomorrow. We’ll have to put in a good performance in order to get something from it.”
