Our prediction for this Bundesliga match:
RheinEnergieStadion will host Saturday’s football game between Koln and Wolfsburg, the two teams who were beaten by Stuttgart and Leipzig respectively at the weekend. The Billy Goats are safe for now, but they need to keep on winning on home soil if they are to avoid relegation to 2. Bundesliga. Fit-again midfielder Dejan Ljubicic is widely expected to return to the starting XI, while all Jan Thielmann, Kristian Pedersen, Luca Kilian, Mark Uth, Florian Dietz, and Sebastian Andersson should miss out with injuries.
The Wolves, on the other hand, suffered a dip in form, with the team collecting only one point in total from the last four league fixtures. Since Wolfsburg have been struggling at the back of late, we are tempted to put our money on Koln, who are a real force to be reckoned with at home. As for the away side, defender Sebastiaan Bornauw is banned for the match, while both Kevin Paredes and Jakub Kaminski are out of contention with injuries.
Highlighted Player (Ellyes Skhiri):
After spending his youth career at Montpellier, Ellyes Skhiri continued playing for la Paillade at senior level. In 2019 he moved to Bundesliga side Koln, signing a four-year contract with the Billy Goats. Shkiri was born in Lunel, France on May 10, 1995, but he has a dual citizenship as his parents are of Tunisia descent.
The Koln midfielder made debut with the Tunisian national team in a 1-0 win over Iran on March 23, 2018 and he represented Tunisia at the FIFA World Cup finals in Russia later that year. Ellyes Skhiri’s main position is defensive midfielder, but he is capable of producing fine performances at both right and centre back.
His preferred foot is right and he has a contract with Koln until June 30, 2026. The Tunisia international made his Bundesliga debut on August 17, 2019 in a 2-1 loss to Wolfsburg and he scored his first ever goal in the German top flight in a 2-1 win over Freiburg on August 31, 2019.
Highlighted Team (Wolfsburg):
Wolfsburg are a German football club founded in the aftermath of the World War II (1945). Die Wolfe (The Wolves) wear green and white shirts and they play their home games at Volkswagen Arena. The capacity of the stadium is 30,000 and it was opened on 13 December, 2002.
It is well known that German car manufacturer Volkswagen are the club’s main sponsors. Wolfsburg won the Bundesliga trophy in 2009 and the likes of Edin Dzeko, Grafite and Zvjezdan Misimovic were part of the club’s golden generation.
You should bear in mind that Grafite and Dzeko scored 54 goals between each other in the 2008/2009 Bundesliga campaign and that the team clinched the trophy thanks to a 5-1 win over Werder Bremen on 23 May, 2009. Die Wolfe won the German Cup trophy in 2015, with the team beating star-studded Borussia Dortmund 3-1 in the title game. Wolfsburg are a team that has no bitter rivals in German football.