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

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.