Wolfsburg coach Ralph Hasenhüttl’s home premiere was a failure: Despite a very defensive orientation, the guests from Gladbach turned the game around to win 3-1 on Sunday (April 7th, 2024) after being 0-1 down at half-time, thus toppling the Wolves the relegation battle.
Ridle Baku (7th) had put Wolfsburg in the lead, but in the second half only the guests through Ko Itakura (53rd), Nathan Ngoumou (57th) and Rocco Reitz (88th) were successful.
Seoane urges modesty
Coach Seoane told Sportschau: “The key was that we didn’t stop after the 0-1 lead, but even after the 2-1 lead. And we defended smarter than before and threw everything in until the end. That gives us self-confidence, but we have to stay humble and Get consistency.”
Inka Blumensaat, sports show, April 7th, 2024 8:05 p.m
“I’m most pleased that we were rewarded for our effort and that our plan worked.”said Gladbach’s Reitz on DAZN. “The victory was definitely for the boys and girls in the corner.”
Maximilian Wöber admitted: “It’s been a tough few weeks, this was a step in the right direction. We saw the results from Saturday and knew it was a must-win game.”
Arnold angry: “We have become headless”
“It’s not so easy when a new coach comes that you get the hang of the processes straight away”said Wolfsburg’s Patrick Wimmer: “Of course we are in the middle of a relegation battle.”
Hasenhüttl also sees it this way: “Five points down isn’t much, of course. In the first half you could see how we wanted to play, then we invited Gladbach to score.”
Captain Maximilian Arnold complained: “After the equalizer we lost our heads. I just want to get as many points as possible as quickly as possible and put this crappy season behind me.”
Seoane with safety formation
After conceding a flood of goals so far this season, Gladbach started the game with an extremely cautious line-up. In front of a five-man defense chain, guest coach Gerardo Seoane called up Julian Weigl as well as the Japanese Ko Itakura, who has always been used as a central defender. This meant that the offensive department only consisted of three players, including starting eleven returnee Alassane Plea.
Ridle Baku with the early lead
But the Gladbachers failed the first security check. Wolfsburg’s Tiago Tomás had a surprising amount of space on the right wing and received the ball perfectly from Mattias Svanberg. With a clever back pass to the penalty spot, Tomás found Baku, who was running along with him, who gave Jonas Omlin no chance to defend.
Wolfsburg remained visually superior after that, but failed to add the second goal. The Gladbach team almost equalized after 20 minutes through a set piece, but Maximilian Wöber headed the ball off the post, completely free-standing.
Neutrality in midfield
A spread-out game then developed until the break, but it largely took place in midfield. There were practically no chances to score any more; instead, both teams played hard in the duels.
Despite the deficit, Seoane stuck to his tactics at half-time – and was rewarded with a bit of luck. In the 53rd minute, Itakura had the courage to take a long-range shot, but it didn’t cause much of a stir. But Wolfsburg’s defender Moritz Jenz deflected the ball so badly with his knee while trying to clear it that keeper Pavao Pervan was caught on the wrong foot – the 1-1 out of nowhere.
Hasenhüttl switches to the offensive
Wolfsburg’s coach Ralph Hasenhüttl reacted immediately to the new starting position in his home debut and brought in two fresh players for the attack in Lovro Majer and Amin Sarr. But the guests again set the next exclamation mark on the offensive – with their “French Connection”.
Pléa fed Franck Honorat on the half-left side, who moved inwards with the ball at his feet and laid it out perfectly for Ngoumou. In this scene, Ngoumou had switched from his left to his right side and pushed the ball quite calmly past Pervan, who once again had no chance, to make it 2-1 (57′).
Hack hits aluminum
The Borussia team subsequently earned this somewhat surprising lead. Defensively, combinations were becoming more and more secure, and Wolfsburg hardly found any space going forward. In the 74th minute, the guests narrowly missed the preliminary decision: Substitute Robin Hack headed a cross from Rocco Reitz, who had joined him in the game, onto the crossbar.
Wolfsburg then almost equalized with a goal of the month, but Joakim Mähle’s spectacular overhead kick went inches wide of the left post. Instead, Reitz put the lid on it in the 88th minute: the Gladbach shooting star of the season completed a back pass from Tomas Cvancara to the penalty spot with perfect shooting technique to score his sixth goal of the season. In stoppage time, the Wolves had a good header chance, but Omlin made a strong save from Kevin Behrens.
Gladbach against BVB, Wolfsburg in Leipzig
The Gladbachers now continue next Saturday (April 13th, 2024) with the Borussia duel against Dortmund. The Wolfsburg team will be playing at RB Leipzig at the same time.