German Bundesliga
2010-01-24 - Vfl Wolfsburg vs FC Koln
A Sports Betting Pick by Niko
Volkswagen Arena
Sunday, 24th January 2010 – kickoff 15:30
Vfl Wolfsburg
Vfl Wolsburg continued with their poor form last weekend and they have lost heavily against bottom side of Stuttgart.
Coach Armin Veh has failed so far to keep the winning mentality from last season which was installed by his predecessor Felix Magath.
His future as Wolfsburg coach appears to be in doubt as the reigning German champions are being linked with a move for Red Bull Salzburg coach Huub Stevens. Stevens is a former Hamburger SV coach and has lots of success with the Austrians this year as they are at the top in their league and advanced further in the Europa League.
The Switzerland international goalkeeper Diego Benaglio sustained a knee injury during the warm-up of last Sunday's 3-1 league loss against Stuttgart and was unable to participate in the game, but last week he went through an individual goalkeeper training program and there is a small possibility for him to be back in the squad for this match.
If he is not able to play then he will be again replaced by the 36-year-old Andre Lenz who did not leave good impressions against Stuttgart in the last round.
Also the team captain Josué was unable to train with the rest of his teammates during the last because of a heavily bruised left foot which he picked up in Stuttgart and will probably not be in the team.
FC Koln
FC Koln came back after being two goals down last week but that stil was not enough to prevent an unfortunate 3-2 loss against Borussia Dortmund.
There is some improvement in FC Koln game after the new coach Zvonimir Soldo was appointed but they will face a tough task ahead to avoid relegation.
FC Koln have tough time scoring goals as they are the worst team in the Bundesliga in the category scored goals as they have scored just twelve so far in the campaign.
Although they brought back their influential striker Lucas Podolski from Bayern Munich, he also struggles to find his form back and have not scored in months.
In December they had a real unusual goal drought as they had a series of three matches in a row that ended 0-0.
There are no reports of absent players for this match and the line up will be the same from last weekend.
The Betting Verdict
Wolfsburg are in desperate need for points as they have dropped further at the table and now are placed tenth with just 24 points.
I think they will take this match seriously in order to keep pace with the teams that are above, and if they fail to do that they will complicate their position and will see real danger dropping near the relegation zone.
Koln struggles to score and this season they have never scored more than one goal, until last week when they scored twice.
With Wolfsburg power up front in Dzeko-Graffite tandem and Koln`s terrible attack, my opinion is that Wolfsburg will do the job and win this match.
The Statistics :
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The Pick :
Vfl Wolfsburg 2-0 FC Koln
