Wolfsburg v FC Köln match preview

By: j | January 30th, 2009

Wolfsburg returns to Bundesliga play as the travel to Köln to face Christoph Daum’s well prepared side. Over the course of the campaign there has been much talk of the success of 1899 Hoffenheim coming up from the second division, yet quietly without a significant budget Mr. Daum has done a brilliant job with Köln. While they have a number of areas that will need to be improved upon if they are to climb into the top third of the table, they will consistently play a hard tackling style with quality shape and discipline thanks to their tactician.

For Saturdays match, Wolfsburg needs to get away from being homesick as their away form made a mess of an otherwise brilliant first half. The transfer window has been sheer genius as Felix Magath has added Yoshito Okubo from Vissel Kobe and Peter Pekarík of MŠK Žilina. Each will make pronounced benefits with the young Slovak capable of being one of the Bundesliga’s great young talents.

Per the upcoming match, Felix Magath said:

“I consider us to have a good chance of deciding the game against Köln in our favour. We made a good start against Rostock and that will boost the confidence. The fact that FC Köln have personnel problems and will be without some important players could also work out in our favour.”

“Edin Dzeko is on his way back to full health after a bout of flu. He will have to let us know how he feels and then we’ll make a decision as to whether or not he can play against Köln. I’m also satisfied with Yoshito Okubo and I was happy with his performance on Wednesday against Rostock. I would have absolutely no problem starting with Grafite and Okubo against Köln.”

“The team is very confident about the re-start. We want, as we did last year, to make up the points we need to realise our target for the season (fifth place). If we are to do that, we are going to need to win games away from home in the second half of the season and the best thing would be to start with that in Köln.”