Hannover 96-Vfl Wolfsburg
AWD Arena
Sunday, 28th February 2010 – kickoff 15:30

Hannover 96

Hannover`s losing streak does not seem to have an end as now they have eight losses in a row and have not won since October last year.

As it looks for now this team is on a certain way to be relegated at the end of the season and with only 17 points they are second team from the bottom. After this round they even might switch places with Hertha Berlin at the last place.

Last week Borussia Dortmund rolled over them 4-1 without even sweating and this team really looks bad in the defense where they have allowed massive 45 goals in 23 matches so far.

One of the reasons for their slump is the long list of injured players and their coach Mirko Slomka really has trouble to complete his team line up. However, there is some good news for the team this weekend as three important players will be back in the squad. The defender Steve Sidwell is match fit and he will be in the starting line up to fill in one of the weakest spots in the team. The team captain Arnold Bruggink will be also back in the squad together with the midfielder Valdet Rama.

Hanno Balitsch has injured himself at training so he is not available for selection. Jacek Krzynowek and Mikael Forssell are also out.

Vfl Wolfsburg

‘The Wolves’ are on a rise again as they have showed some great performances in the recent weeks. After they have beaten the strong team of Schalke 04 they continued their good form in the Europa league as well where they have knocked out Villarreal 4-1 during midweek and entered in the Round of 16 where they will meet another Champions league dropout-Rubin Kazan.

This team also has many problems in the back line and they have also conceded 45 goals – same as Hannover.

The team coach Lorenz-Gunther Kostner will field a standard 4-4-2 formation with Grafite and Dzeko up front while Obafemi Martins will have to sit out this match due to an injury (muscle strain) which he had picked up in the Europa league match.

The reserve and experienced goalkeeper André Lenz is back in the team, but probably coach Kostner will give advantage to the young Swiss goalkeeper Marwin Hitz who did a great job with his saves in the matches against Villarreal and Schalke 04.

There are no other injured or suspended players for this match so except Martins the team line up will be the same that played against Villarreal.

The Betting Verdict

This will be a match between two teams that are complete opposite-Hannover are dropping rapidly while Vfl Wolfsburg started playing as expected and their form is on the rise. Obviously the crisis that Vfl Wolfsburg were in is now over and i expect them to prove their good form against maybe the weakest team in the Bundesliga at the moment.

These teams have met 15 times so far and Vfl Wolfsburg have won in 9 of them, losing three and drawing three.

Vfl Wolfsburg are in better form at the moment and moving away from the dangerous zone at the table, so anything else than Vfl Wolfsburg win will be a huge upset here.

The Statistics :

The Pick :

Hannover 96-Vfl Wolfsburg 2-3

FIXED ODDS BETTING :

Away win for Vfl Wolfsburg