Germany’s Struggling Giants - Monchengladbach vs Wolfsburg
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Last season, this was a big match, between a team who were in contention to qualify for the Champions League, a feat they accomplished and a team who were performing very well in Europe’s premier club competition.
Borussia Monchengladbach enjoyed a very successful 2015/16, which culminated in a fourth-place finish in the Bundesliga table and qualification for the Champions League. Although their opponents this Tuesday evening, Wolfsburg, failed to qualify for the Champions League this season, they participated last season and finished top of their group, a group which included Manchester United and PSV Eindhoven. Wolfsburg went on to make the quarter-finals, narrowly losing out to eventual winners, Real Madrid.
Fast forward to December 2016 and fortunes have changed for both clubs and they find themselves in the bottom half of the Bundesliga table. Borussia Monchengladbach and Wolfsburg are both closer to the relegation zone than the top of the table and need a win to ease their worries ahead of the winter break.
Monchengladbach come into the match having lost 1-0 at Augsburg on the weekend, which was a very disappointing result. It’s now just one win in ten Bundesliga matches for Andre Schubert’s team and if this run of form continues, they are sure to sucked into a relegation battle. Their only shining light ahead of this match is the fact they have been difficult to beat at home and although they have only won one of their previous five home league games, they have lost just one at Stadion Borussia Park all season.
Wolfsburg have also been struggling to win games recently and their 1-0 victory over Eintracht Frankfurt on the weekend, was their first in five Bundesliga games. Overall form has been dreadful this season and Wolfsburg have won just three of their fifteen league matches and two of the last fourteen. Interestingly, over half their 13 points this season have come away from home, with two wins and two draws from their efforts on the road.
If anything, both teams are struggling to score goals and this is where the problem lies. Since the start of October, Monchengladbach have failed to score more than a single goal in any of their ten Bundesliga matches and therefore they have been struggling to win games. Wolfsburg have the same issue and since the 10th September, they have scored more than one goal only twice, in fourteen Bundesliga matches.
This suggests we are going be in for a cagey game on Tuesday night and there will not be a great deal of good, attacking football to enjoy. If the match is going to see a winner, it is likely to be by a goal margin and looking at current form, either team could take the points.
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