Dhe disappointed VfL players trudged off the pitch with a blank look, Florian Kohfeldt was clearly frustrated. For Wolfsburg, who were very weak on Wednesday evening, the Champions League season is over after the preliminary round. The Bundesliga club lost its last and decisive group game against French champions OSC Lille 1: 3 (0: 1) and was therefore completely deserved as the bottom of the table in Group G. To say goodbye to the premier class, there were even occasional whistles from their own fans.
“Our performance today wasn’t good. We definitely have room for improvement, “said Luca Waldschmidt after the game and added, referring to the Wolfsburg negative series:” We don’t need to talk about it: four defeats in a row are a bad run. “
Coach Kohfeldt’s team could have qualified for the round of 16 with a win, but 36-year-old Burak Yilmaz scored 1-0 for the French in the 11th minute. Jonathan David (72nd) and Angel Gomes (78th) added two more hits. “We wanted to accelerate and definitely make progress. But after conceding a quick goal we had to chase the music again early on, ”said Waldschmidt. The goal by Renato Steffen (89th) shortly before the end had no effect.
Wolfsburg continued the disappointing performance of the previous weeks in this important game and have already suffered their fourth defeat in a row in national and international competitions. The fact that, with 6544 fans, not even half of the 13,281 spectators allowed due to corona came into the stadium, also contributed to the desolation of this evening.
Wolfsburg with mistakes and without ideas
There was a lot at stake in those 90 minutes. Progress in the Champions League has enormous sporting, financial and, especially for the VfL parent company Volkswagen, also a high advertising value. Almost 20 million euros in entry fee and bonuses were already taken by the “wolves” in this group phase. A win against Lille and reaching the round of 16 would have added another 12.4 million. “For us, this competition is anything but a matter of course,” said Supervisory Board Chairman Frank Witter. VfL had only survived the group stage once in the 2015/16 season and reached the quarter-finals against Real Madrid.
It became apparent early on against Lille that it would be difficult this time. After just ten uneventful minutes, the Wolfsburg counterattacked after their own corner. Via goalkeeper Ivo Grbic, right-back Zeki Celik and the unstoppable Jonathan Ikoné, the ball landed at center forward Yilmaz and in the goal.
VfL responded only seconds later with a placed long-range shot from Luca Waldschmidt (12th), but otherwise made an appearance that never did justice to the great importance of this game. At the back they made numerous mistakes in the game structure because of the sheer nervousness. There was a lack of speed, ideas and, above all, courage at the front.
Before this game, coach Florian Kohfeldt had exchanged almost half of his starting eleven and surprisingly left Ridle Baku and Dodi Lukebakio out alongside the suspended international striker Lukas Nmecha. The apathy of the games at FC Sevilla (0: 2) and FSV Mainz 05 (0: 3) did not drive the coach of his team out with this measure.
At the beginning of the second half Kohfeldt brought the Belgian Lukebakio, later Baku and the French Jerome Roussillon. But that didn’t make it much better or more powerful. The fast Ikoné could have made everything clear in the 53rd minute. VfL did not have any chances of this quality in the second round either.
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