After the first defeat under the direction of the new coach Florian Kohfeldt, VfL Wolfsburg is threatened with an early end in the Champions League. The Lower Saxony lost on Tuesday evening at Sevilla FC with 0: 2 (0: 1) and are bottom of the group G in the last game day on December 8th. Joan Jordán scored the opening goal for the six-time Europa League champion from Spain in the twelfth minute, Rafa Mir made everything clear in stoppage time (90 + 7).
Despite the second defeat in the current competition, Wolfsburg still has the chance to reach the round of 16. In two weeks’ time, however, a victory against table leaders OSC Lille is required. And for this, in turn, a significant increase in performance is necessary. Because the appearance of the Bundesliga club in the Estadio Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán was a complete disappointment.
“Sevilla will put a lot of pressure on in the first 20 minutes and try to play us tired. We have to be awake and hold on to it,” Kohfeldt said before the game on Amazon Prime Video. And in fact, the Spaniards started very energetically and pushed VfL into their own half. Unlike the last time, Kohfeldt had defensively aligned his team with a back four. The recovered Josuha Guilavogui, most recently in the center of a three-way defensive chain, was previously in the defensive midfield.
Wolfsburg needs a while to recover from the deficit
But the change did not benefit the guests at all. Already in the twelfth minute, the hosts took the lead after a coordination error in the Wolfsburg back team. Ex-Schalke Ivan Raktitc served Jordán in the middle, where international Ridle Baku came too late so that the Spaniard could head in. Pavao Pervan in the Wolfsburger Tor had no chance. The Austrian stood between the posts for captain Koen Casteels because the Belgian had tested positive for the corona virus and had not even started the trip to Andalusia.
It took VfL a while to recover from the early deficit. It took until the 22nd minute before Wolfsburg became dangerous for the first time. Then Lukas Nmecha took heart, but his shot directed Seville goalkeeper Bono to the crossbar. Seville remained decisive in the game and deservedly led at the break. Even after the break, almost nothing came from the Bundesliga sixth. Wout Weghorst was completely canceled on the offensive, and Lukas Nmecha was also unable to show himself apart from his crossbar shot in the first half.
The Lower Saxony made way too many easy ball losses and never came dangerously in front of the Spaniard’s goal. It was just because Sevilla didn’t take their chances and Pervan was there once or twice that it stayed exciting until the end. Kohfeldt brought fresh offensive forces in Maximilian Philipp and Dodi Lukebakio. But even they couldn’t move anything on this dreary evening from Wolfsburg’s point of view.
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