Key players

You can’t talk about VfL without mentioning Jonas Wind – the striker has been Wolfsburg’s player of the season so far. The Denmark international, who along with Joakim Maehle is also teammates with Yussi Poulsen, has scored eight of his team’s 13 Bundesliga goals and has also provided one assist. The 24-year-old has been directly involved in around 70% of Wolfsburg’s goals this term.

Wind has a habit of scoring braces. He bagged two goals against Heidenheim, as well as against Köln and Frankfurt. Wind has scored a variety of different goals this season – he has scored with both feet as well with his head. The striker needed a little bit of time to get up to speed after arriving from FC Copenhagen in the winter of 2022. Wind scored five goals in 14 games in his first six months, whilst managing six goals in 24 matches in the 2022/23 season.
Maxence Lacroix (23) is a constant feature in VfL’s defence. The Frenchman is in his fourth season with Wolfsburg, has appeared in every competitive game so far this term and also got on the scoresheet against Leverkusen. The defender is a strong physical presence (1.90m tall), whilst he’s also comfortable playing out from the back.

“He’s a rock at the back with his aggression, robustness and good positioning,” Niko Kovac explaining, praising the Frenchman. “He’s a key figure in our defence.”
Co-captain Maximilian Arnold has been one of the first names on the team sheet for Wolfsburg over past few years, having played 317 games for the club since 2011 (39 goals). He's not featured as much this season and has alternated between the starting XI and the bench. Yannick Gerhardt and Wolfsburg's co-captain Koen Casteels have also struggled for form of late, with the latter having just recovered from injury.

The question of whether Kovac will play the experienced trio has been one of the key talking points ahead of the match.