Preview: Wolfsburg vs Freiburg - prediction, team news, lineups

Hoping to close out 2025 with another Bundesliga win, resurgent Wolfsburg will welcome Freiburg to Volkswagen Arena on Saturday.

Die Wolfe are aiming for a third consecutive victory, while Die Breisgau-Brasilianer will be looking to get back to winning ways this weekend.

Match preview

Wolfsburg parted ways with Paul Simonis last month following a dire run of six losses in seven games, and while a permanent replacement has yet to be appointed, the club have already started to turn things around.

Interim manager Daniel Bauer is now in his 11th season with Die Wolfe, having been a coach in their youth setup since 2016, but his spell in charge of the senior team has yielded two wins and one draw from the last three matches.

Most recently, the temporary boss followed up his 3-1 triumph over Union Berlin on December 6 by beating Borussia Monchengladbach by the same scoreline last weekend.

Those victories have taken Wolfsburg up to 13th in the table, where their total of 15 points sees them four clear of the bottom three, even if they remain 10 short of the top six as things stand.

Notably, Die Wolfe's win against Union marked their first home triumph since a 5-1 hammering of Gladbach on January 14, and another three points this weekend would give more hope to Bauer, who has spoken of his desire to continue and half-joked about already being given the job.

Meanwhile, Julian Schuster's Freiburg are currently competing in the Europa League, but they are off the pace for achieving qualification for next season's tournament via the Bundesliga so far.

Die Breisgau-Brasilianer are resilient overall given that they have only lost two of their 11 matches preceding this clash, but with one win, one draw and two defeats from their four most recent top-flight games, they will be desperate to translate their form into Bundesliga points.

Last time out, Schuster's side were held to a 1-1 draw by 10-man Borussia Dortmund at Europa-Park Stadion, needing a 75th-minute effort from Lucas Holer to level the score.

That stalemate has Freiburg ninth in the German top flight with 17 points, putting them nine behind fifth-placed Hoffenheim in the Europa League spot, and just two above their opponents.

Knowing that defeat would likely drop the visitors into the bottom half until the new year, travelling fans will make the journey with caution having seen their team win only one of their last five away outings, as well as lose three of their last four on the road in the top flight.

Wolfsburg Bundesliga form:

Freiburg Bundesliga form:

Freiburg form (all competitions):

Team News

Wolfsburg will be lighter than ideal up top this weekend, as they miss strikers Jonas Wind and Mohamed El Amine Amoura - the latter of whom is away on international duty - as well as wingers Kevin Paredes and Andreas Skov Olsen.

In their absence, Dzenan Pejcinovic is likely to continue at centre-forward, supported by an attacking trio of Christian Eriksen, Lovro Majer and Patrick Wimmer.

At the opposite end of the pitch, left-backs Joakim Maehle and Rogerio are both sidelined through injury, so expect to see Aaron Zehnter start, though centre-half Moritz Jenz could be back in the squad after recovering from a thigh issue.

Elsewhere, midfielder Bence Dardai is out for the season with a major knee injury, though Maximilian Arnold and Yannick Gerhardt should be on hand to start in a double pivot on Saturday.

As for Freiburg, they will be without right-sided forward Cyriaque Kalou Irie, who is on international duty, and may be missing fellow attackers Jan-Niklas Beste and Eren Dinkci, both of whom are doubts for this game.

With that in mind, Lucas Holer should continue as striker, and he could be backed up by Philipp Treu, Johan Manzambi and Vincenzo Grifo.

In Schuster's defence, centre-halves Philipp Lienhart and Max Rosenfelder are also sidelined due to respective groin and hamstring injuries, so the visitors look set to line up with Matthias Ginter and Anthony Jung.

Wolfsburg possible starting lineup:

Grabara; Kumbedi, Seelt, Koulierakis, Zehnter; Arnold, Gerhardt; Eriksen, Majer, Wimmer; Pejcinovic

Freiburg possible starting lineup:

Atubolu; Kubler, Ginter, Jung, Gunter; Eggestein, Osterhage; Treu, Manzambi, Grifo; Holer

We say: Wolfsburg 2-1 Freiburg

Wolfsburg seem inspired under interim boss Bauer, and while they have been shocking at home in 2025, they could end the year with another win in front of their own crowd.

Freiburg have been resilient across all competitions this season, but their travelling form - especially in the Bundesliga - has been poor, and they could suffer a fourth defeat in five top-flight away matches on Saturday.

For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.