Unlucky Wolves lose again

The Wolves suffered their first home defeat of the season on Saturday afternoon, losing 0-1 against VfB Stuttgart in front of 23,686 in the VOLKSWAGEN ARENA. Diego Klimowicz (16.) and Mike Hanke (66.) had the best Wolfsburg chances in what was an average game. The home side was out of luck as the visitors scored their winner, as the ball trickled over the line after being touched by Silvio Meißner, who had just come on as a substitute.

Several changes

The home coach Holger Fach was without his Georgian midfielder Tskitishvili, who was sent off against Mainz in round 15 (1-5). Fach made five changes to his side which performed so poorly on that day. Quiroga, Lamprecht, Fischer and Marlet were banished to the bench. Andres D´Alessandro made his comeback after a month out injured. He was joined in the starting line-up by Sarpei, Schnoor, Neziri and Hanke. Fach opted for a 3-5-2 instead of his usual 4-4-2 system. Visiting coach Giovanni Trapattoni was forced to travel to Wolfsburg without his Danish star striker Tomasson because of a hardened thigh muscle. His place in the Stuttgart team went to the Brazilian goal getter Cacau.

Even terms at first

Wolfsburg tried to get a grip on the game from the off and attacked the visiting side right away. On the attack however, the Wolves struggled to get past Stuttgart’s well organised back four. As soon as Stuttgart began to counter attack using Stranzl, they looked very dangerous, Stranzl’s cross was met by a weak header from Cacau on 11 minutes. The effort was easily dealt with by the home keeper Simon Jentzsch. The first chance for the home side fell to Klimowicz on 16 minutes. Wolfsburg’s top scorer headed towards goal after fine approach work by Neziri down the left. The Argentinean was denied by keeper Hildebrand on his line

D'Alessandro a little rusty

The Wolves tried to get the ball to their creative midfield general D´Alessandro, who was still rusty after his long injury lay off, the little South American was unable to stamp his authority on the game. As the Wolves attacked down the wings the visiting defence looked nervous. After 30 minutes, The Wolves took the pace out of the game and began to get on top of Stuttgart. On 39 minutes, Hans Sarpei had a half chance with a shot from just inside the area which never hit the target. Stuttgart threatened 3 minutes before half time as Hitzlsperger tried a shot but didn’t score.

As you were

Both sides came out for the start of the second half unchanged, and the game didn’t change much. There was a lot of possession in midfield, but neither side was able to breach the opposing defence at first. Stuttgart coach Trapattoni made a double change as he brought on Meißner and Gomez for Hitzlsperger und Cacau. It was a move which was soon to bear fruits.

Sickening winner

Four minutes after coming on as a substitute, Meißner put the visitors ahead, as a cross by Ljuboja was back headed by Gomez into the path of Meißner who miss-hit the ball, which trickled agonisingly past Jentzsch and into the net on 62 minutes. Stuttgart sat back on their lucky lead and put ten men behind the ball. Trapattoni’s side waited to counter attack, and threatened again as Ljuboja forced Jentzsch into a fine save after 82 minutes. The Wolves could find no way back and lost the game 0-1.

Lautern up next

Stuttgart gained a crucial win after drawing 7 of their last 8 games. They were not the better, but the luckier team. Thw Wolves were understandably nervous and harmless in front of goal. Holger Fach will be hoping to lift his troops for the trip to Kaiserslautern in the final Bundesliga game of the year.

Match details:

VfL Wolfsburg:  Jentzsch - Franz, Schnoor, van der Heyden - Sarpei, Thiam, Neziri - Menseguez, D'Alessandro - Hanke, Klimowicz -

VfB Stuttgart:  Hildebrand - Stranzl, Fernando Meira, Delpierre, Magnin - Tiffert, Gentner, Soldo, Hitzlsperger - Ljuboja, Cacau 

Goals:   0:1 Meißner (62.)

Referee:   Fandel

Attendance:  23,696

Yellow cards:  Schnoor - Magnin, Gentner