34th matchday
“This is madness!” Wolfsburg gambled away the European Cup place
Hertha’s Jessic Ngankam (l) in a header duel with Wolfsburg’s Felix Nmecha. photo
© Swen Pförtner/dpa
Everything was ready for VfL Wolfsburg’s return to the European Cup. But despite an early lead and numerous chances, Lower Saxony lost sixth place against relegated Hertha BSC.
This is not how Josuha Guilavogui imagined his departure from VfL Wolfsburg. After his last game for Lower Saxony, the Frenchman stood on the fence of the north stand for minutes and was celebrated by the fans.
But instead of returning to a European competition, his Bundesliga career ended late on Saturday afternoon with what was probably the biggest disappointment of his nine years in Wolfsburg.
“Today I’m coming to the stadium with my children, I’m getting a present, I’m wearing Maximilian Arnold’s armband and we’ll score a goal after a minute or two,” said Guilavogui. It all “was more than perfect. And in the end it always goes deeper, deeper, deeper, deeper.”
Dropped back to eighth place
With a 1:2 (1:0) against Hertha BSC, who had been relegated for a week, the Wolfsburg team not only missed the jump to sixth place in the final table on the last Bundesliga matchday. A late goal by Eintracht Frankfurt against SC Freiburg (2-1) in added time this season even dropped them to eighth place.
That means: Instead of a safe place in the Conference League with the justified hope of qualifying for the Europa League, the Lower Saxony are now completely empty-handed. They are not represented in an international competition next season either. And it no longer matters to them how the DFB Cup final between Frankfurt and RB Leipzig ends next Saturday.
Gerhardt frustrated
“That’s the worst case scenario,” said frustrated midfielder Yannick Gerhardt. “We had a chance today that we’ll never get again. It should have been 3-0 after 30 minutes. That’s amazing!”
In fact, in front of 26,775 spectators in the Volkswagen Arena, everything was ready for Wolfsburg’s return to international business. It quickly became clear that Bayer Leverkusen, who were only one point better than sixth in the table, would lose their game at VfL Bochum – in the end it was 0:3 for the VfL competition, who were outnumbered for more than 80 minutes.
The “Wolves” themselves took the lead in the second minute through Jakub Kaminski and then created a usury of chances that were punished twice in the end.
4 minutes: The Pole Kaminski misses another big chance. 18 minutes: Jonas Wind shoots wide of the empty goal. 42 minutes: A Guilavogui shot is cleared on the goal line. And those were just the best of many good opportunities for VfL. In the closing stages, Omar Marmoush (86′) and Sebastiaan Bornauw (89′) at least managed to equalize. Even that would have been enough for sixth place.
Maza scores for Hertha
“It’s normal for us to lose this game,” said coach Niko Kovac. But that’s exactly what happened. Ibrahim Maza (55th) and Marco Richter (68th) scored for the bottom of the table from Berlin. Randal Kolo Muani (83′) and Éric Junior Dina Ebimbe (90’+1) turned Frankfurt’s 0-1 deficit against SC Freiburg into a late 2-1 win.
“Today we beat ourselves and deprived ourselves of the rewards we deserved for this season,” said Kovac. “Everything was on display for us. A European season is so important for young players. Unfortunately, we’ve lost that now. That’s why I’m quite disappointed and a little angry.”
In the next season, VfL wants to make the next attempt at the top six places. The young team should get a few selective reinforcements for this. The only thing she will have to do without is Guilavogui’s experience. After nine seasons, 207 Bundesliga games, a DFB Cup win and two appearances in the Champions League in Wolfsburg, the 32-year-old will move abroad. “I have a few offers, but I won’t play in the Bundesliga anymore,” he said. Playing against VfL – he can’t imagine that.