Neither side were scoring freely prior to the winter break, and it is difficult to imagine things changing much here. The respective teamsheets could prove telling, as if either manager opts to switch from a back five to a back four, that could suggest a more offensive gameplan.
Given Mainz's precarious position in the table and Wolfsburg's poor away form this season, we can envisage these sides sharing the spoils. This would represent a reasonably positive start to 2024 for both teams.
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Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Wolfsburg win with a probability of 44.69%. A win for Mainz 05 had a probability of 30.73% and a draw had a probability of 24.6%.
The most likely scoreline for a Wolfsburg win was 1-2 with a probability of 9.18%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 0-1 (9.01%) and 0-2 (7.17%). The likeliest Mainz 05 win was 2-1 (7.38%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (11.52%). The actual scoreline of 1-1 was predicted with an 11.5% likelihood. Our team at Sports Mole correctly predicted a 1-1 draw for this match.