30th matchday
Home win against Bochum: Wolfsburg wins crisis duel
VfL Wolfsburg won the duel with VfL Bochum in the relegation battle. photo
© Swen Pförtner/dpa
Both are in crisis. Both have FSV Mainz breathing down their necks in the Bundesliga relegation battle. Wolfsburg’s win against Bochum is correspondingly important.
The fear of relegation at VfL Wolfsburg is now averted. The Volkswagen Club won that Crisis duel with VfL Bochum in the Bundesliga 1-0 (1-0). Instead of the “Wolves”, the Bochum team, who have not won in eight games, can now move up from 16th in the table on Sunday. FSV Mainz 05 will be relegated to the relegation place. Jonas Wind decided a weak game in front of 26,327 spectators with his first league goal in five months (43rd minute).
For Wolfsburg it was the first home win since November 25th and also the first home game after the surprising separation from sports director Marcel Schäfer. Because of his impending move to RB Leipzig, the 39-year-old has gone from being a club idol to a traitor for some supporters, which is putting even more strain on the no-bad mood around the club. This led to a very ambivalent atmosphere in the Volkswagen Arena on Saturday.
Bochum doesn’t reward themselves, Wolfsburg scores
On one side, the fans rolled out protest posters with slogans such as “The corporation’s pawn”, “Soulless plastic club” and “Management outside the fans”. On the other hand, they loudly supported the struggling team. Wolfsburg Mayor Dennis Weilmann, among others, had called for this in the past few days.
For a long time, this support didn’t seem to help, because the Bochum team were actually closer to making it 1-0 in the first half than the green and white VfL. Patrick Osterhage missed a good counterattack chance in the 28th minute. Shortly afterwards, Takuma Asano appeared all alone in front of Wolfsburg goalkeeper Pavao Pervan after a free kick (32′).
What was particularly bitter for the Bochum team was that Osterhage’s own goal was initially disallowed after video evidence was used (40th), while the “Wolves” took their first clear chance to take the lead just three minutes later. Three Bochum players had the opportunity to defuse the situation before Wind’s left-footed shot.
Dane Wind scores the goal of the day
It was the tenth goal of the season for Wolfsburg’s best goalscorer. The Dane even only sat on the bench in the two defeats against Mönchengladbach and Leipzig.
Ralph Hasenhüttl’s lineups are just as difficult to predict as the sometimes wild rotations of his predecessor Niko Kovac. Against Bochum, the three most expensive purchases of the past two years, Lovro Majer, Joakim Maehle and Mattias Svanberg, were left out.
However, Hasenhüttl has not yet been able to convey stability and a suitable game idea to this team. The lucky opening goal gave the Lower Saxony team no security or conviction. Bochum dominated the second half, but only became somewhat dangerous from free kicks and corners. For Wolfsburg, who were passive and only waiting for a counterattack, substitute Kevin Behrens stumbled miserably on the most promising counter-attack (67′). Jakub Kaminski also missed the possible 2-0 (86th minute).