Wolfsburg coach Felix Magath believes Saturday's derby against Hertha Berlin will be "like a final" for both teams.

A four-game winning streak has lifted the Wolves up to seventh in the Bundesliga, while 11th-placed Hertha could move level on points with their rivals with a victory.

"Now it's time for us to prove that we belong to the upper echelons of the division," Magath said.

"We need to be very focused to defend our position. It will be like a final."

To add further spice to the derby, Wolfsburg playmaker Marcelinho, a former favourite at the Olympic Stadium, has hit out at his old team-mates.

"When I was with them, we almost always played in the UEFA Cup," he told the Bild newspaper.

"After I was gone, they ended up in 11th or 12th spot."

Marcelinho's remarks have not gone unnoticed in the capital and defender Malik Fathi has vowed to end Wolfsburg's winning run.

"I am very happy they won at Schalke last weekend," he said. "Now it's up to us to bring them down to earth.

"We will be able to qualify for the UEFA Cup without Marcelinho."

While Wolfsburg have no injury problems to worry about following Sergej Karimov's return from a thigh injury, Hertha boss Lucien Favre is still sweating over the fitness of Raffael (back), Patrick Ebert (knee) and Arne Friedrich (flu).

Pal Dardai (ankle), Lucio (knee surgery) and Andreas Schmidt (thigh) are definitely sidelined.

Coach Fevre believes Saturday's showdown will be a good learning curve for his young side.

"We have a very young team and there is still a lot of work ahead of us," he said.

"We are just taking one match at a time."