Schalke will welcome Wolfsburg to the VELTINS Arena on Friday night to kick off another weekend of Bundesliga action that sees the home side all the way down in 18th still with the Wolves aiming for a spot back in Europe.
Wolfsburg have had a very topsy-turvy start after the resumption of football in Germany and they now come into this game off the back of three defeats in a row.
This run started with a 2-1 loss on the road to Werder Bremen and things were made worse with a 2-1 defeat to Union Berlin in the DFB-Pokal round of 16.
Back in the Bundesliga, the Wolves played hosts to Bayern Munich and were thrashed 4-2 by the champions after going three goals down inside 20 minutes.
Jakub Kaminski and Mattis Svanberg brought one back each, however, but it was nowhere near enough to grab all three points in the end.
Prior to this terrible run of form, Niko Kovac’s men were well in with a shout of getting into the Champions League spots.
This came off the back of defeating Freiburg in a stunning 6-0 victory, just prior to smashing Hertha Berlin 5-0 in the capital.
It now keeps the Wolves in seventh and with just eight wins from 19 games and six losses too. On the other hand, with 38 goals scored, they are proving to be a handful in front of goal too, but they do now sit behind RB Leipzig in fourth by seven points.
As for Schalke, it’s been a disastrous return to the Bundesliga and for all the hope that they could end up building a life in the German top flight once more, they sit down in last place and with barely a hope of survival at this stage in the campaign.
The club are winless since the return after the World Cup and only picked up two points thanks to consecutive goalless draws with Koln and Borussia Monchengladbach.
This run keeps the club eight points adrift of safety and five behind Stuttgart in the relegation playoff spots.
In fact, with only two goals scored, only the likes of Elche in La Liga and Cremonese in Serie A are having worse seasons than Schalke across Europe's top five leagues.
Forebet predicts a win for Wolfsburg here and for the game to see over 2.5 goals as the away side looks to get their second away win of 2023.