Wolfsburg v Hamburger SV match preview

Following the dreadful home loss to PSG in the mid-week UEFA Cup match, Wolfsburg face Bundesliga leaders Hamburger SV at the Volksparkstadion.

Martin Jol is unquestionably steamrolling his way to one of the best stories of the Bundesliga this year. After being dumped by Tottenham of England's Premier League in thoroughly cowardly manner, the wily Dutch coach has HSV flying strong and further proving his brilliance on the pitch.

While HSV stumbled to Karlsruhe recently they have equally dispatched top-shelf club Bayer 04 Leverkusen and Bayern München and show little signs of slowing up. Of course against Wolfsburg in a Nord derby, motivation is a plenty and HSV cherish the opportunity to send die Wölfe back with another "away" defeat.

For the match Felix Magath is far from providing confidence boosting quotes saying:

"We will do all in our power to hold our own in Hamburg too. We are in good form and the fans can look forward to seeing a very interesting game."

"Interesting" is more than a morsel shy of we'll fight for every blade of grass but I suppose that's a discuss for another time. Wolfsburg is without Sascha Riether, Diego Benaglio and Ashkan Dejagah but there is some question if Grafite might be able to perform. While they are anxious to have the Brazilian striker back, it is far too soon from knee injury and will only cause long term problems. In one of the most troubling losses Zvjezdan Misimović is in the sin-bin for the match, causing significant problems for their tactical play. HSV will miss Bastian Reinhardt, Timothée Atouba Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting and Romeo Castelen to injury and both Collin Benjamin and Jérôme Boateng are suspended.