Florian Kohfeldt stopped VfL Wolfsburg’s defeat streak on his debut and celebrated a debut made to measure. At 39, Wolfsburg’s youngest Bundesliga coach in club history ended the negative trend of four league bankruptcies in a row under his predecessor Mark van Bommel with a 2-0 (0-0) win at Bayer Leverkusen. As a result, the “Wolves” climbed to seventh place, Leverkusen loses after the third Bundesliga game in a row without a win in fourth, five points behind SC Freiburg (22), the connection to the top group and is now in the middle of a sporting crisis.
Lukas Nmecha (48th) and Maximilian Arnold (51th) scored for the Wolfsburg, who Kohfeldt had taken over on Tuesday, 48 hours after the dismissal of the hapless Dutchman van Bommel. In stoppage time, VfL captain Koen Casteels held a penalty from Lucas Alario, while Maxence Lacroix from Wolfsburg had previously received a red card because of a jersey pick that was considered an emergency brake.
“We have already finished analyzing our opponents and are preparing for a strong Leverkusen team. It’s going to take a lot of courage to flip the switch. But we’re ready for it because we know that we can protect each other, ”said Kohfeldt before his debut, which he was visibly burning for five months after leaving Werder Bremen.
Both teams did not flip said switch at the beginning. Wolfsburg disrupted the Leverkusen build-up game early on. Good chances were initially in short supply in front of 20,132 spectators. Ridle Baku had the best opportunity in a very quiet early phase, who failed to Bayer captain Lukas Hradecky (7th). On the other side, Kerem Demirbay shot wide of the goal (17th), Amine Adli just missed (21st).
Out of nowhere, it got briefly heated in the middle of the first half. After young star Florian Wirtz collided with Renato Steffen, a pack was formed, which referee Deniz Aytekin confidently resolved with tact and three yellow cards. By the half-time whistle, the mood quickly cooled down in a game that had been extremely tiring to date, in which Kohfeldt conducted in the usual manner on the edge of the field.
That changed suddenly after the break. Wolfsburg took advantage of the Werkself’s deep sleep. First Nmecha used a completely free-standing artist. Then after a huge chaos in the Bayer penalty area, the ball landed at the feet of Arnold, who shot a massive amount. After that, there was still far too little from Bayer to create tension again.
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