Wolfgang Wolf wins in Wolfsburg

The Wolves went back to the dark ages on Sunday evening, as they lost 0-1 at home to Nürnberg in round 29 of the Bundesliga. After dominating the visitors for the first half an hour, the home side lost the plot and deserved to lose to the side coached by the former Wolves coach Wolfgang Wolf, who made his first trip to his former club since joining Nürnberg at the end of last season.

Furious start

Both teams began at a furious pace in front of a paltry crowd of 19,276 in the VOLKSWAGENARENA. Nürnberg soon showed that they had come to play, and played attacking football from the off. That tactic gave the home side the chance to counter attack in their own stadium. One counter attack saw Maric pass to fit again Martin Petrov on the left wing. The Bulgarian winger found himself one on one with the Nürnberg keeper Schäfer, and the keeper did well to narrow the angle and in doing so deny Petrov a strike on goal.

Brdaric goes close

Nürnberg didn’t allow the home side to settle and even attacked them in the Wolves half. Despite that fact, the Wolves began to get a grip on the game, and pushed the visiting side back to their own area. Petrov was not marked closely enough and was a constant threat during the early stages of the match. On 15 minutes, Petrov crossed into the area where Brdaric went close with a bicycle kick. It was the German international striker again who had the next chance fort he Wolves, as he was picked out by a perfectly weighted cross by the youngster Fischer, Schäfer in the Nürnberg goal took the sting out of his header, tipping the ball over the bar, much to the disappointment of the home fans.

First chance for the visitors

Nürnberg created their first chance of the game four minutes before half time. Kießling was brought into play by the Bundesliga top scorer Mintal, the German under-21 striker’s shot fizzed wide of Simon Jentzsch’s left hand upright. Seconds before the break, Pablo Thiam headed a Cantaluppi corner onto his own crossbar; it was the best chance that Nürnberg had in the first half…

Nürnberg take the lead

Both sides were unchanged for the start of the second half which never had the class of the first. The visiting side continued to go forward, and Wolfsburg sat back and let them come at them. The second half was almost void of goalmouth action although both sides tried hard. On 63 minutes the visiting side took the lead, as a corner from the left by Cantaluppi was headed into the air by Franz. As the ball came down, Kießling out jumped Jentzsch to head the ball into the far left hand corner with the Wolves keeper stranded.

Sarpei just in time

That goal served as a wake up call for the Wolves, who threw caution to the wind and threw everything they had at the visitors. Nürnberg began to counter attack, and during one of those moves, Nikl played a through ball to Kießling, but Hans Sarpei made a fine tackle to avert the danger in the nick of time. The home side had no shape to their game without the 6 injured players who were missing from their starting line-up. The visiting defence could have been breached on several occasions, but after Nürnberg went ahead they never really looked to be in much danger even as the home side put them under constant pressure in the latter stages of the game. Minutes from the end, the former Wolves skipper Stefan Schnoor somehow managed to miss a clear cut chance from inside the six yard box. That incident was symbolic of how things went for the Wolves as Wolfgang Wolf came to town…

Match details:

VfL Wolfsburg:  Jentzsch - Rytter, Franz, Schnoor, Sarpei - Fischer, Thiam - Karhan - M. Petrov - Brdaric, T. Maric 

Nürnberg:  Schäfer - D. Reinhardt, Cantaluppi, Nikl, L. Müller - Larsen - Wagefeld, S. Müller - Mintal - Daun, Kießling 

Goals:   0:1 Kießling (63.)

Referee:   Merk, Dr.

Attendance:  19,276

Yellow cards:  Schnoor, Franz - Cantaluppi, Kießling, Aidoo