Injury worries pile up for Wolfsburg

Defenders Rever and Andrea Barzagli and striker Grafite all missed training on Wednesday and are unlikely to figure in the game, which is evenly poised at 1-1 after the first leg in Russia. Cristian Noboa gave Rubin the lead after 29 minutes at the Tsentralnyi Stadium, but Zvjezdan Misimovic grabbed a potentially vital away goal for the Bundesliga side midway through the second half. Wolfsburg did receive one piece of welcome injury news this week, with first-choice goalkeeper Diego Benaglio back in training. However, Thursday's game is likely to come too soon for the 26-year-old. The Switzerland international told the club's official website: "It was really wonderful to be back training with the team again. I'm delighted that it finally worked out. "I will be training with the rest of the team quite normally this week but the game against Kazan will probably come too soon. "If I am fit by Sunday, that will be fantastic." Despite the absence of Grafite, Wolfsburg will go into the game oozing confidence after a 4-0 win at Borussia Monchengladbach at the weekend. Edin Dzeko scored his 13th and 14th goals of the season in the impressive victory, which came just 30 hours after they returned to Germany following a 2,000-mile flight from Russia. As for Rubin, they will be hoping to fare better than fellow Russian side CSKA Moscow, who lost 3-1 at Wolfsburg in the Champions League group stages in September. However, the Russian champions can draw on the memories of their astonishing 2-1 win away to Barcelona in the same competition earlier this season, and also point to the fact that they won more points on their travels than at home in domestic league action in the previous campaign. Rubin also began the defence of their league title with a 2-0 win over Lokomotiv Moscow at the weekend, although they had to wait until the 89th minute to break the deadlock. Andrei Gorbanets opened the scoring and Alexander Bukharov grabbed a second goal seconds later to seal the win.