First Team

Outstanding display brings three points

The Wolves beat Borussia Mönchengladbach 5-1 in their first home game of 2025.

Make that six points in the space of four days for VfL Wolfsburg, after Ralph Hasenhüttl’s men beat Borussia Mönchengladbach 5-1 at home on Tuesday night. Jonas Wind (3’, pen), Joakim Maehle (60’), Maximilian Arnold (75’) and Lukas Nmecha (83’/87’) were on the scoresheet in front of 20,519 fans at the Volkswagen Arena, in what was the last match of the first half of the Bundesliga season. The opening period was a reasonably tight encounter but the hosts turned it well and truly in their favour after the break. The win moves the Green-and-Whites at least temporarily up to sixth in the table.  

Goals

  • 1-0 Wind (3’): That’s the way to start a match in front of your home fans! Julian Weigl brings down Bence Dardai in the box and Wind makes no mistake from the spot to record his seventh goal of the season.
     
  • 2-0 Maehle (60’): The second goal is an all-Danish affair. Maehle does excellent work on the left wing, cuts in towards the box and plays a one-two with Wind. The latter’s backheel means that his 27-year-old fellow countryman is free on goal, and he duly fires home to double the lead.
     
  • 3-0 Arnold (75’): The captain all but secures the points! Maehle feeds Arnold in the box and the skipper controls the ball brilliantly before firing home into the far corner from the tightest of angles under considerable pressure – 3-0 to the Green-and-Whites!
     
  • 4-0 Nmecha (83’): The goals keep on coming. Nmecha comes on as a substitute and immediately shows his eye for goal, Patrick Wimmer having done great work to tee him up.
     
  • 5-0 Nmecha (87’): The super-sub makes it five moments later. Wimmer and in particular the livewire Maehle do all the hard work to set the goal up, with Nmecha sliding in to prod the ball over the line.  
     
  • 5-1 Fukuda (89’): The visitors grab a consolation goal with their only real chance of the match, straight from the restart. Shio Fukuda latches onto a rebound and finds himself one-on-one with Kamil Grabara, threading the ball through the keeper’s legs.

Reactions

Ralph Hasenhüttl: “Congratulations to the team – they really had to dig deep against a very strong side today, particularly in the first half. It was very tough for us when we were out of possession and we struggled to get our opponents away from our goal. During the break, we changed a few things around and that paid immediate dividends, and then you could see that the other team were going to have to take more and more risks. These are the times when you have to wait it out and then take advantage of the opportunities that come, and the way we did that was amazing. After 20 minutes, I’d never have said that the match would have ended up the way it did. On the whole, though, we deserved the result because we put a lot of effort in and proved that we weren’t about to let our lead slip.”

Gerardo Seoane: “We played really well between the two penalty areas, particularly in the first half and in parts of the second. We dominated possession and played with a solid block. We didn’t convert that possession into goals, though. We weren’t clinical enough in the final third and we didn’t have the determination and the grit we needed to impose ourselves. The last half-hour was where I really wasn’t satisfied – we lost our heads at times and showed some real mental weaknesses. It’s a tough result to take, but what we need to do now is get back to work and put this match behind us as quickly as possible.” 

Line-ups and stats

VfL Wolfsburg: Grabara – Fischer, Vavro, Koulierakis (81‘ Bornauw), Maehle – Dardai (73‘ Svanberg), Arnold, Gerhardt – Kaminski (45‘ Wimmer), Wind (73‘ Nmecha), Amoura

Subs: Müller (GK), Angely, Özcan, Vranckx, Behrens  

Borussia Mönchengladbach: Nicolas – Scally (81’ Lainer), Itakura, Elvedi, Netz (70‘ Ullrich) – Reitz (81‘ Sander), Weigl, Plea, Stöger, Hack (70‘ Fukuda) – Cvancara (81. Ranos)

Subs: Omlin (GK), Chiarodia, Friedrich, Neuhaus

Goals: 1-0 Wind (3‘, pen), 2-0 Maehle (60‘), 3-0 Arnold (75‘), 4-0 Nmecha (83‘), 5-0 Nmecha (87‘), 5-1 Fukuda (89‘)

Yellow cards:  Arnold / –

Referee: Florian Badstübner (Nürnberg)

Attendance: 20,519 at Volkswagen Arena (Wolfsburg)