H2H: Wolfsburg vs St Etienne – Prediction (Europa League

Preview and Teams Comparison.

Wolfsburg’s 3-1 home loss in their last UEFA Europa League (UEL) home outing bore some significance, with the result making it four straight UEL games played here featuring over 3.5 goals. Fans should expect a lively start here, as the opener has been scored within 20 minutes on each occasion. The hosts enter this clash hoping to put an end to a dreadful streak of four straight competitive home losses, conceding 3.5 goals per-game on average. Encouragingly though, ‘Die Wölfe’ hold the title of fastest starters this UEL campaign, having scored more goals in the opening half hour (GF 6, GA 1) than any other side in the competition.

Already out of Europe, St Étienne are winless in their last seven UEL fixtures (D4, L3). Furthermore, the fact that they have kept just one cleansheet across their last ten UEL away fixture (including qualifiers) is also concerning. ‘Les Verts’ may want to keep it particularly tight late on, as they have conceded 62.5% of their last eight away UEL goals beyond the hour mark. This game could be a tight clash in any case, as just one of St Étienne’s previous 21 UEL fixtures (incl. qualifiers) were settled by a margin of 2+ goals.

Players to watch: João Victor (WOL) has netted two UEL goals so far, both were scored in the opening half hour. Notching five league goals so far, Romain Hamouma was St Étienne’s first scorer in three of the four games in which he scored.

Stat attack: Wolfsburg’s last seven UEL home fixtures have been settled by a two-goal margin or greater. St Étienne’s last five UEL away outings have produced over 2.5 goals. ‘Les Verts’ have lost seven of their nine competitive trips to Germany (W1, D1, L7).