First Team

Points shared against St. Pauli

The Wolves could only manage a 1-1 draw against FC St. Pauli.

VfL Wolfsburg were held to a 1-1 draw at home to FC St. Pauli on Bundesliga Matchday 25. Mohammed Amoura equalised for Ralph Hasenhüttl’s side with a 70th-minute penalty after Siebe van der Heyden had given the visitors the lead (38’) in front of 28,917 spectators at the Volkswagen Arena.

The result leaves the Wolves in seventh place in the Bundesliga before the remaining fixtures on Matchday 25.

VfL’s next outing comes next Saturday, 15 March (kick-off 15:30 CET), when they travel to FC Augsburg in the league.

Goals

  • 0-1 Van der Heyden (38’): The Wolves are caught from a corner. The deep ball is headed back across goal by Jackson Irvine on the byline, and van der Heyden gets to it first and nods in from close range.
     
  • 1-1 Amoura (70’ pen): Finally! As Jakub Kaminski races into the penalty area, van der Heyden can only stop him with a desperate tug of the shirt. The resulting penalty is confidently dispatched by Amoura.

Reaction

Ralph Hasenhüttl: “We could have put the icing on the cake following our win in Bremen, but unfortunately weren’t able to. At the moment we always seem to go behind in tight home games like this one. We’re not giving much away but today we conceded from a set piece. And at the other end of the pitch we weren’t clinical enough to make the most of the few chances we had. We’re ruthless away from home but we can’t get the ball over the line at home. Our counter-pressing didn’t work well at all today. We were far too rushed in a lot of situations in the first half. After the break we tried until the end to get our quick players behind their defence, which is how the penalty came about and the chance for Amoura. That was undoubtedly the biggest opportunity to get a winner. But in the end all we got was a point.”

Alexander Blessin: “We had another decent game. We managed to implement a lot of the things we set out to do. We won the ball really well in the final third, but we could have been tidier with our passing and shooting in those situations. But we looked good. Normally we would have taken all three points after going in front but this time the referee had something against that because he gave a soft penalty. That’s very frustrating. That gave Wolfsburg a second wind and they created some more chances after that. I’m certain we would have won if they hadn’t equalised.”

Line-ups and stats

VfL Wolfsburg: Müller – Fischer (46‘ Roerslev), Vavro, Koulierakis, Maehle – Gerhardt (46‘ Arnold), Svanberg, Skov Olsen (63‘ Kaminski), Tomas (79‘ Behrens) – Wind (63‘ Dardai), Amoura

Subs: Pervan (GK), Odogu, Vranckx, Akaegbobi

FC St. Pauli: Vasilj – Nemeth, Wahl, van der Heyden – Treu, Irvine, Smith, Ritzka (46‘ Saliakas) – Weißhaupt (7‘. Boukhalfa), Sinani (90‘+4 Eggestein), Afolayan (46‘ Saad)

Subs: Voll (GK), Dzwigala, Ahlstrand, Banks, Ceesay

Goals: 0-1 Van der Heyden (38‘), 1-1 Amoura (70‘, pen)   

Yellow cards: Amoura / –

Referee: Robert Hartmann (Wangen)

Attendance: 28,917 at Volkswagen Arena (sold out)