Hamburg and Wolfsburg desperately need maximum points from Saturday’s clash at Imtech Arena, but for all the different reasons.

While the hosts are fighting for their lives at the moment, the Wolves sit just one point behind Champions League positions with four games to go.

Hamburger SV have been on a major downtrend for a while, but nobody could predict they would be in such a difficult position going into the final four fixtures.

Some disappointing performances in the second part of the season saw the Red Shorts slip to relegation play-off position, while they are mere one and two points clear of Nurnberg and Braunschweig respectively, who sit in the relegation zone.

And while the team impressed to defeat Bayer Leverkusen in their previous home fixture, HSV were completely outclassed by Hannover in a relegation six-pointer and were pretty fortunate not to lose by a bigger margin.

Mirko Slomka’s charges now desperately need to regroup ahead of the all-important clash against Wolfsburg, where they are 3.00 (2/1) to claim maximum points.

The injury situation has gotten worse of late seeing as how Jansen, Lam, Rajkovic, Badelj, Bouy, van der Vaart, Beister and Lasogga are all unavailable.

The hosts are hoping that Heiko Westermann will recover in time to take his place in the starting line-up, with the veteran defender likely to be used again in an unfamiliar left-back role.

Probable starting line-up (4-4-1-1): Adler – Diekmeier, Djourou, Mancienne, Westermann – Jiracek, Tesche, Arslan, Ilicevic – Calhanoglu – Zoua.

Unlike their next opponents, Wolfsburg are enjoying one of the most successful seasons in recent years and they could clinch Champions League qualification for the first time since winning the Bundesliga in 2009.

The Wolves have been showing incredible improvement under Dieter Hecking, although club management also helped by recruiting some high-quality players.

Wolfsburg were unable to qualify for the DFB Pokal final as they were defeated by Borussia Dortmund in the semis, but with just four games to go they sit one point behind Champions League positions in Bundesliga.

While also losing to BVB in the league, they won three of last four fixtures, defeating Nurnberg 4-1 last Saturday, and they will fancy their chances against injury-hit Hamburg.

Team’s 5-3-7 away record in the league is hardly enviable, but there may still be some value in betting on away win, at odds of 2.38 (11/8).

Talented midfielder Junior Malanda has been ruled out for the season through a knee injury, whilst Diego Benaglio and Bas Dost remain on the sidelines.

Probable starting line-up (4-2-3-1): Grun – Trasch, Naldo, Knoche, Rodriguez – Medojevic, Gustavo – de Bruyne, Arnold, Perisic – Olic.