Wolfsburg and Paderborn play to scoreless draw in first leg of playoff | OneFootball

On a partly cloudy, nineteen-degree day with a mild summer breeze at Volkswagen Arena, VfL Wolfsburg (7-8-19, 16th Bundesliga) played host to SC Paderborn 07 (18-8-8, 3rd 2. Bundesliga) in the first leg of the 2025/26 Bundesliga promotion-relegation playoff. The winning team of the two-legged tie, on aggregate, will qualify for the 2026/27 Bundesliga season.

Both sides qualified for their places in this playoff this past weekend, winning by two on the final day of the 2025/26 season. Wolfsburg defeated FC St. Pauli 3-1 in a relegation clash to drop Der Freibeuter to 2. Bundesliga, and Paderborn defeated SV Darmstadt 98 2-0 to finish third in the German second tier, above Wolfsburg’s Niedersachsen rivals Hannover 96.

This is the second time that Wolfsburg are in a promotion-relegation playoff, having defeated another Niedersachsen side in Eintracht Braunschweig 2-0 on aggregate (1-0, 1-0) to retain their Bundesliga spot for the 2017/18 Bundesliga season. Wolfsburg have never been relegated from the Bundesliga in their 81-year history, promoting to the top tier in 1997/98 and staying there since.

As for Paderborn, they have never played in a promotion-relegation playoff for a spot in the Bundesliga, as the two times that they promoted to the German top-flight were both by finishing second in the 2. Bundesliga table. In both of those seasons where Paderborn promoted to the Bundesliga (2014/15 and 2019/20), they finished last and dropped back into second division football.

Christian Eriksen kicked the ball back to Kamil Grabara, who sent it upfield to begin the match at Volkswagen Arena. The hosts would get the first chance five minutes in, as a Dženan Pejčinović flick pass landed on the left side of the box; Mattias Svanberg, running into the open space, nearly got on the end of it, but appeared to trip on his own boots and went to the ground.

Two minutes later, Paderborn had their first attacking chance of the evening. Laurin Curda crossed the ball from the right side of the Wolfsburg third, close to the box; Jeanuël Belocian headed the ball to his right before being involved in a 1v1 duel with Stefano Marino, going to ground but sending the ball away in time for a corner to the visitors.

On the ensuing set piece, Filip Bilbija, on the right side of the Wolfsburg goal area, headed the ball back to Santiago Castañeda in the central area of the box; the American midfielder powered a shot off the body of Jeanuël Belocian and towards the goal line, but Svanberg was there to hoof it away from danger. The clearance led to a footrace for possession between Adam Daghim and Ruben Müller; the latter brought down the former with a sweeping tackle, picking up a yellow card from Brand in the process.

In the ninth minute, Castañeda and Denis Seimen would make a few passes back and forth before the former intended to start moving the ball forward. Without a passing angle to his left or right, as Calvin Brackelmann and Mattes Hansen were both covered by the Wolfsburg attacking midfield, Castañeda held on for the ball too long and lost possession to Yannick Gerhardt. From there, Gerhardt tapped the ball behind him; Saël Kumbedi was there and then completed a short pass to the edge of the box where Daghim was placed. However, Castañeda made up for his mistake and knocked the ball away to his right for an eventually unsuccessful corner to the hosts.

In the twenty-first minute, Denis Vavro launched a curling, close to the ground attempt from well outside the Paderborn penalty area, but it did not test Seimen too much - going just wide of the bottom-left corner. Four minutes later, a threaded pass into the box from Kumbedi went to a darting Daghim, who got past Brackelmann before deflecting the ball off a sliding Tjark Scheller for a corner to the hosts. Eriksen would cross the ensuing corner near-post, headed away but landing to Belocian in the centre of the Paderborn half; the Frenchman would also try his luck from distance, but missed the bottom-right corner by metres.

Wolfsburg would not let up in the minutes that followed. At the half-hour mark, Eriksen would send the ball to the right side to Kumbedi, who would then deliver a ground pass into the centre of the Paderborn penalty area; Mæhle tried to get on the end of the chance, but it weakly rolled off his right foot and into the gloves of a crouching Seimen.

Two minutes later, Svanberg threaded a left-footed through ball from the centre of the Paderborn half into the right side of the box; Daghim weaved his way around Brackelmann and into a 1v1 opportunity, but his attempt for the bottom-left corner with the inside of his left boot was denied by the right leg of Seimen and out for a corner to the hosts, which Eriksen sailed well above the scramble of players inside the box and out of play.

In the thirty-eighth minute, Konstantinos Koulierakis would launch a long ball from the middle of the ground into the right side of the Paderborn penalty area. An onside Pejčinović tried to get control of the ball, tapping it with the tip of his lifted right boot, but could not knock it down and instead redirected it out of play for a goal kick to the hosts.

With three minutes remaining in the third term, Wolfsburg won a free kick on the left side of the Paderborn half. Eriksen would connect a string of passes with his Danish compatriot Mæhle before attempting a left-footed cross from the left edge of the Paderborn penalty area; it deflected off the right leg of Castañeda before being punched away by both gloves of a leaping Seimen for a corner. Eriksen’s ensuing delivery was precise, entering the centre of the goal area before being gloved down by the 20-year-old goalkeeper from Heilbronn, Baden-Württemberg.

Despite outshooting Paderborn 7-2 and 2-1 on target while holding 53% possession, Wolfsburg could not find an opener in the first 45 minutes and so the match remained goalless at the break. Dieter Hecking’s side also had a slightly better passing accuracy, 86% on 302 passes compared to 85% on 220 for Ralf Kettemann’s visitors.

After both sides recharged for fifteen minutes, Marino kicked the ball back to Seimen, who started off the second half by hoofing the ball into the left side of the Wolfsburg half.

Five minutes into the second term, Mæhle, on the left side of the midfield, sent a long ball into the right side of the Paderborn half with his right boot. Kumbedi, the recipient, brought it down and weaved his way around Sticker before sending a ground pass towards the centre of the box; Scheller read the play well, running into the space and lifting it away for a corner to the hosts before Daghim could run into the space and power the ball goalwards with his left boot.

In the sixty-first minute, Eriksen was brought down by Hansen on the left side of the Paderborn third, close to the box. The Danish record goalscorer, seeing that there was an open bottom-left corner, launched the ball into the left side of the penalty area, bouncing off the ground before being cleared by a sweeping slide tackle from recent substitute Steffen Tigges. On the following Wolfsburg attacking rush, Belocian delivered a pass into the left side of the box - Daghim would get on the end of it with a header, but his attempt towards the bottom-left corner was denied by the gloves of Seimen, who held on.

Wolfsburg won a free kick at the hour mark, curled towards the bottom-right corner by Eriksen but pawed away by Seimen. Gerhardt ran to the right side of the box for a quick delivery back into the centre of the box; substitute Mohamed Amoura met it almost perfectly with a header towards the bottom-left corner, but his attempt was gloved down by the Paderborn keeper.

After this point, it was midfield play for the most part, with neither side able to generate decent chances. That worked to the strengths of Paderborn, though, as they were able to shut down the Wolfsburg momentum and generate a dangerous chance of their own with six minutes remaining. Castañeda, on the left side of the Wolfsburg third, sent the ball back to Curda, who in turn flicked the ball into the centre of the box with his left boot. Bilbija was the recipient, lifting the ball above Kamil Grabara and towards the bottom-right corner from the centre of the goal area; Vavro leapt to bring the ball down with his left boot, and Mæhle followed by clearing it off the line.

Despite a series of Wolfsburg chances in the final minutes, the hosts could not get a late winner and this match ended in a scoreless draw. Wolfsburg held 72% possession in the final term, outshooting Paderborn 9-1 and 3-0 on target - with an 84% pass accuracy for the hosts on 253 passes, compared to 60% on 73 passes for the visitors. Overall, Wolfsburg outshot Paderborn 17-2, 5-1 on target - with 63% possession and an 85% pass accuracy on 513 passes, 8% better than the 77% accuracy from Paderborn on 261 passes.

Both sides will have everything to play for on Monday evening, as the winning team secures their spot in the 2026/27 Bundesliga season and the losing side faces the harsh reality of 2. Bundesliga football in August. Kickoff is set for 20:30 (CET) on Monday evening at Home Deluxe Arena in Paderborn, Nordrhein-Westfalen.