VfL Wolfsburg is slipping more and more into the bottom of the table in the Bundesliga. Lower Saxony lost 1:3 (1:0) against Borussia Mönchengladbach on Sunday at the end of the 28th matchday in the home premiere of new coach Ralph Hasenhüttl and are now only five points ahead of FSV Mainz 05 in the relegation zone.
Mainz clearly won 4-0 against Darmstadt on Saturday. In the first game under Hasenhüttl, who succeeded Niko Kovac, Wolfsburg won 2-0 in Bremen.
The Gladbachers, who were also in crisis recently, moved into secure midfield with their second away win of the season and can take a deep breath for now. In front of 26,105 spectators in the Volkswagen Arena, Ridle Baku gave Wolfsburg an early lead (7th minute). Kou Itakura (52′) and Nathan Ngoumou (58′) turned the game around for the guests after the break. Shortly before the end, Rocco Reitz (88th) scored the final score.
“We have had a lot of disappointments in the last few weeks, including the exit from the DFB Cup. A win like that in Wolfsburg tastes particularly good,” said Gladbach’s Maximilian Wöber on DAZN.
Gladbach coach Gerardo Seoane had changed his team to five positions compared to the frightening performance in the 3-0 defeat against SC Freiburg. These changes initially had no effect. Once again, Borussia slept through the opening phase and quickly fell behind. After an opening pass from Mattias Svanberg, Tiago Tomás fed Baku, who was running along, who scored to give the hosts the lead.
A solid performance was enough for Wolfsburg to take the lead into the break. The Gladbachers acted far too harmlessly to put the home team, who were by no means convincing, in trouble. Except for a header from Maximilian Weber (21′), the team wasn’t dangerous.
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Wolfsburg also missed almost everything in Hasenhüttl’s first home game and was punished for his passivity shortly after the break. Itakura shot from a good 25 meters, Moritz Jenz deflected the ball into his own goal. Hasenhüttl, for whom it was his first defeat as a coach against Gladbach, reacted immediately and brought in two new offensive forces in Lovro Majer and Amin Sarr. But shortly afterwards the VW club had to accept the next setback. Ngoumou completed a nice move by the guests to take the surprising lead.
The home team was now completely out of sorts and there were lots of whistles from the stands. The situation in the Autostadt can be described as quite tense. The Gladbachers failed to ensure an early decision on some counterattacks. So it remained exciting until the stimulus finally provided clarity.
