Wolfsburg vs Bochum

Wolfsburg will be looking to pick up where they left off last season as they welcome newly-promoted Bochum to the Volkswagen Arena in their 2021/22 Bundesliga opener.

A truly inspirational 2020/21 Bundesliga campaign saw Wolfsburg claim a top-four finish for only the third time in the club’s history. Mark Van Bommel, who took the managerial reins over from Oliver Glasner in the summer, will be looking to hit the ground running from Matchday 1 as he aims to better his recent predecessors’ managerial starts at Wolfsburg. Indeed, three of Wolfburg’s previous four coaches could only manage a 1-1 draw on their Bundesliga debuts for ‘Die Wolfe.’ Delivering action from the get-go, the visitors either scored or conceded within 15 minutes of play in 16 Bundesliga matches last season, with only Bayern Munich’s league games seeing the opener scored in that timeframe on more occasions. A flying start to their home Bundesliga campaign in 2020/21 saw Wolfsburg go unbeaten in their first 13 home league fixtures (W9, D4).

In the meantime, Bochum managed to put an end to an exhausting 11-year wait for top-flight football by conquering Bundesliga 2 last season. Curiously, Bochum’s path to Germany’s top tier included a draw ratio of a mere 11.76% (W21, D4, L9), with just one of those four stalemates coming in 2021. But their hopes of ensuring top-flight survival could be rather faint, as witnessed by a nail-biting extra-time win over fourth-tier outfit Wuppertaler in last weekend’s DFB-Pokal fixture. ‘Die Unabsteigbaren‘ will need to improve upon last season’s loss ratio of 35.29% away from home if they are to stand a chance in the relegation tussle. Moreover, a return of one win from their opening four league matches in 2020/21 (D2, L1) may imply Bochum’s proneness to slow starts.