First Team

Defeat in Anderlecht friendly

The Wolves slipped to a narrow loss against the record Belgian champions.

Nine days after the official return to training at the Volkswagen Arena, VfL played their second pre-season friendly of the summer. Head coach Ralph Hasenhüttl’s charges suffered a 2-1 defeat away to record Belgian champions RSC Anderlecht on Saturday, with Kasper Dolberg (66’) and Nilson Angulo (69’) turning the game around after Mohammed Amoura's (14’) opener for the Green-and-Whites.

VfL's U19 forward Jonathan Akaegbobi caused the home defence plenty of headaches in an impressive outing and twice went close to an equaliser (74’, 87’). At the other end of the pitch, Pavao Pervan prevented the scoreline creeping any higher with a fine save with his fist (86’).

Overall the Wolves played well, especially given how early they are in their pre-season programme, and against opponents who are much further on in their preparations for the new campaign.

The team's next friendly is in Rheda-Wiegenbrück on Wednesday against French top-flight side Lille OSC at 16:30 CEST.

“A great test”

Ralph Hasenhüttl: “During the week we didn’t really take this game into account, and we trained very hard. The boys played well for the first 60 minutes and were much the better team. After all the substitutions it became more difficult, especially for the young players that came on. But it was still a great test for us against a team that is about to start their league season.”

Line-ups and stats

RSC Anderlecht: Coosemans – Sardella (88. Patris), Nunzio Engwanda (62‘ de Cat), N'Diaye (76‘ Arnstad) – Stroeykens (62‘ Dreyer), Leoni, Ashimeru (81‘ Flips), Rits, Verschaeren, Amuzu (37‘ Angulo) – Vazquez (62‘ Dolberg)

VfL Wolfsburg: Grabara (46’ Pervan) – Lacroix (62’ Cozza), Bornauw (62‘ Braun), Odogu (62‘ Neininger), – Baku (62‘ Börset), Arnold (62‘ Ibrisimovic), Gerhardt (46‘ Dardai), Kaminski (62‘ Diettrich) – Tomas (46‘ Akaegbobi), Amoura (46‘ Behrens), Bröger (62‘ Amoako)

Yellow cards: Engwanda / Dardai

Goals: 0-1 Amoura (14’), 1-1 Dolberg (67’), 2-1 Angulo (69’)

Referee: Lawrence Visser

Attendance: 15,000 at Lotto Park, Anderlecht