A promoted side looking for consistency | SV Wehen Wiesbaden opposition analysis

Time to defend our title once again!

RB Leipzig travel to play SV Wehen Wiesbaden on Wednesday at 20:45 CEST. RBL want to continue their fantastic record in the DFB-Pokal in the first round of this year's competition, having only lost one of their past 18 games in the Pokal: the 2021 final against Dortmund. RBL have won each of their past 12 games in the competition.

The opposition that await Leipzig were promoted to Bundesliga 2 in summer and have lost a number of key players as a result of their success. They've fallen to two consecutive defeats after making a strong start to the season. Find our comprehensive opposition analysis of SV Wehen Wiesbaden below!

Form

Our opponents have made a very decent start to life in Bundesliga 2 for a promoted side. The team from Hesse picked up seven points from three games before falling to their first defeat of the season against 1. FC Nürnberg. Wiesbaden caused a stir after picking up a point against promotion favourites Schalke 04 thanks to a late goal. They've been beaten twice in a row after the international break: away at SC Paderborn (2-1) and at home against fellow promoted side SV Elversberg (2-0). This means that SVWW have been without a win in the league since matchday 3, or for four games.
 

Wiesbaden's form in numbers:

The side from Hesse...

• … have only scored six goals so far (an average of 0.86 goals per game) - only Braunschweig have scored fewer (5).
• … have only conceded eight goals (an average of 1.14 per game) - only three Bundesliga 2 teams have conceded fewer goals.
   

Team news

Transfer market

Wehen Wiesbaden have had a bit of a rebuild in spite of, or perhaps due to, their promotion to the second division. SVWW have lost five key players: Benedict Hollerbach, who had the most goal contributions last season (Union Berlin), defensive stalwart Ahmet Gürleyen (1. FC Nürnberg), dynamic left-back Brookln Ezeh (Hannover 96), Johannes Wurtz (FC Honka), and Sebastian Mrowca (Preußen Münster). The experienced Dennis Kempe also retired at the age of 37. 

Danish centre-back Marcus Mathisen (IK Sirius), midfielder Keanan Bennetts (Darmstadt), attacker Antonio Jonjic (Aue), defensive specialist Martin Angha (once of Arsenal, Nürnberg and 1860 München), midfield talent Julius Kade (Dresden) and striker Franko Kovacevic (NK Domzale) have all been brought in to fill the gaps left by the departures. The new-look team hasn't managed to find a consistent starting XI as of yet.
 

Key players

The team leader is the experienced Sascha Mockenhaupt. The centre-back is club captain and has been a Wehen Wiesbaden player for six-and-a-half years now. The 32-year-old has started six of the seven competitive games this season, but was an unused substitute for the game against Elversberg.

Robin Heußer and Gino Fechner are SVWW's go-to midfield pairing. Ivan Prtajin is the team's talisman. He's bagged twice this season and was the top scorer for Wiesbaden in 2022/23 with 15 goals.
 

Absentees

New arrival Bennetts (muscle injury) is not available for selection alongside designated midfield maestro Emanuel Taffertshofer, who has been struggling with a persistent groin injury. Apart from that, SVWW head coach Markus Kauczinski has a full squad to select from.
 

Head coach

Markus Kauczinski is a very experienced coach: The 53-year-old, who was born in Gelsenkirchen, was at Karlsruher SC for a number of years, starting out with the youth academy, before progressing to work with the second team and then finally taking over as first-team head coach. He was head coach at KSC in 2012 and 2016, even reaching the promotion play-off in 2015, although his side fell to a narrow defeat against Hamburger SV.

In the summer of 2016, he moved to the Bundesliga and took over from our ex-coach Ralph Hasenhüttl at FC Ingolstadt. However, he was dismissed after ten games without a win. Kauczinski was hired by SVWW in November 2021 after spells at FC St. Pauli (2017-2019) and Dynamo Dresden (2019-2021).

In his first season with his new side, he led the team to a top-half finish (8th place), whilst the team achieved promotion to the 2. Bundesliga for the third time (previously happened in 2007 and 2019) after winning their promotion play-off against Arminia Bielefeld (4-0 and 2-1).
 

RBL's record vs Wiesbaden

Head-to-head:

• One win and one defeat - two goals scored, two conceded
• A win at home and an away defeat
• Top scorers: Dominik Kaiser and Bastian Schulz (1 goal apiece)
• Biggest win: 1-0 on 16th February 2014 (Goal: Dominik Kaiser)

Both games:

• 16th February 2014 | 3. Liga, matchday 25: RB Leipzig 1-0 SV Wehen Wiesbaden
• 31th August 2013 | 3. Liga, matchday 6: SV Wehen Wiesbaden 2-1 RB Leipzig