‘Wolves’ falter to on-form Bayern

Wolfsburg - On match day 21, VfL Wolfsburg crashed to a 1-3 (0-2) home defeat against FC Bayern Munich. A crowd of 30,000 at the VOLKSWAGEN ARENA saw Arjen Robben (2’), Daniel van Buyten (26’) and an own goal by Andrea Barzagli (57’) do the damage for the visitors. What proved to be a mere consolation for the ‘Wolves’ was scored by Grafite late on (90’).

On the day, the ‘Wolves’ were caught napping very early on. With just two minutes on the clock, the VfL keeper found himself plucking the ball out of the back of his net. Bastian Schweinsteiger and Thomas Müller combined well to set up Arjen Robben, and the Dutch international slotted home to give the visitors a 1-0 lead. Robben was involved again midway through the first half as Bayern doubled their lead. The Dutch winger swung in a corner, which somehow found its way back across the face of the goal and van Buyten flung himself at the ball to head the visitors into a 2-0 lead from seven meters out. VfL had chances of their own throughout the first period but could make no effective use of them and went in at the break trailing by two goals.

It was much of the same again after the re-start, with the ‘Wolves’ managing to carve out some promising openings against the currently high flying Munich side. VfL were clearly out of luck and then saw fortune favour the visitors. In the 57th minute, Barzagli turned a loose ball, following a shot by Müller, into his own net to make it 3-0. Then, in the 66th minute, there was to be further salt rubbed into the ‘Wolves’ wounds as Hans-Jörg Butt got down to smoother a Grafite penalty. In the 90th minute, the Brazilian striker did manage to get his goal, heading home after van Buyten’s deflected a Dzeko pass across the face of the goal, but it was to prove too little, too late for VfL Wolfsburg.


The game at a glance:

VfL Wolfsburg: Lenz – Riether, Madlung, Barzagli, Schäfer – Josué – Hasebe (61‘ Pekarik), Gentner  - Misimovic (72‘ Kahlenberg) – Dzeko, Grafite

FC Bayern München: Butt – Lahm, van Buyten, Demichelis, Badstuber – Robben (81‘ Klose), Schweinsteiger, van Bommel, Müller – Gomez, Olic (46‘)

Goals: 0-1 Robben (2’), 0-2 van Buyten (26’), 0-3 Barzagli o.g (57’), 1-3 Grafite (90’)

Yellow cards: Hasebe, Gentner / Olic, Demichelis

Attendance: 30,000 (VOLKSWAGEN ARENA)

Referee: Manuel Gräfe (Berlin)