First Team

Three away-day goals, three points

VfL see off Heidenheim 3-1 on their Sunday travels.

The Wolves rounded off Matchday 10 with a 3-1 (2-0) win away to 1. FC Heidenheim, finally breaking their long-running Sunday hoodoo. Yannick Gerhardt (3’), Bence Dardai (40’) – his first goal for the club – and Tiago Tomas (90’) were on the scoresheet for the Wolves, while Marvin Pieringer (64’) replied for FCH.

The Green-and-Whites now have another international break, with the next Bundesliga action coming on Saturday 23 November (kick-off: 15.30 CET) at home to Union Berlin in the Volkswagen Arena.

Goals

  • 0-1 Gerhardt (3’): A perfect start! A through-ball from Amoura finds Gerhardt 20 metres out. Heidenheim goalkeeper Müller dives low to his left but only succeeds in pushing the ball onto the inside of the post, before it finds its way into the back of the net. 1-0 for VfL and plenty of regrets for the FCH goalkeeper.
     
  • 0-2 B. Dardai (40’): Dardai opens his account in Green-and-White! Arnold floats over a corner and Müller pulls off a fine save from Vavros’ resultant header, but VfL regain possession. Müller is again on hand to parry Wimmer’s low cross from the left, but the ball remains in the danger area and Dardai reacts first to stab the ball home, again via the inside of the left-hand post.
     
  • 1-2 Pieringer (64’): The match comes alive once against as Heidenheim halve the deficit. It again comes from a set piece, this time a corner, with Pieringer firing home from close range.
     
  • 1-3 Tomas (90’): Grabara prevents what would have been an equaliser, VfL go up the other end, Tiago Tomas puts his speed to good use and keeps a cool head to beat Müller and secure the three points! And…breathe!

Reactions

Ralph Hasenhüttl: “We’re pleased that we got the win here today. Everyone knows how tough it is to come out on top here. It was exactly the kind of match that we’d imagined. We knew that a lot of it would come down to how we defended our own penalty area. We had some good chances in the first half to score more goals. We had a more defensive set-up right from the start because you can always try to be more attacking and at the end of the day, you create your chances, and we got the two goals. So in that respect, it worked well. It was obviously really difficult for Heidenheim after they’d played on Thursday, and I take my hat off to them. We were looking to exploit any tiredness they might have had right from the off. I tip my cap to them for the way they fought back in the second half. After the break, we didn’t manage to transition as well as we had been, and there were phases when we were under a lot of pressure. The third goal secured the win, though, and it was what we deserved.”

Frank Schmidt: “Going behind so early on didn’t help our cause, and you could see that when Wimmer was allowed to run in unchallenged on Kevin Müller. It was unlucky that the equaliser was chalked off with Honsi being just offside. Going 2-0 down was even worse, because things like that shouldn’t happen at a set piece. We had to come to terms with being 2-0 down at half-time, and I give the players a lot of respect for the second half. We pride ourselves on being able to come back from situations like that. Wolfsburg were playing very deep and looking to hit us on the counter. We put a lot of crosses in and had plenty of runs but didn’t create enough in the way of decent chances. Once we pulled it back to 2-1, we missed the opportunity to get back on level terms during that period, even though we probably deserved to. When it became 3-1, that sealed the result. We shot ourselves in the foot and Tiago Tomas went up the other end and put the game to bed.”

Line-ups and stats

1. FC Heidenheim: K. Müller - Traore, Mainka, Gimber, Föhrenbach (57‘ Schimmer) – Schöppner, Dorsch (57‘ Beck), Honsak, Wanner (77‘ Breunig), Scienza (87‘ Thomalla) – Pieringer (87‘ Conteh)

Subs: Eicher (GK), Siersleben, Kerber, Theuerkauf

VfL Wolfsburg: Grabara – Fischer (80‘ Behrens), Vavro, Koulierakis, Maehle (20‘ Zesiger)  – B. Dardai (80‘ Özcan), Arnold, Baku, Gerhardt, Amoura (70‘) – Wimmer (70‘ Wind)

Subs: Müller (GK), Bornauw, Kaminski, L. Nmecha

Goals: 0-1 Gerhardt (3‘), 0-2 B. Dardai (40‘), 1-2 Pieringer (64‘), 1-3 Tomas (90‘)

Yellow cards: Föhrenbach / Fischer, Wimmer, Zesiger, Grabara, Tomas, Behrens

Referee: Harm Osmers (Hannover)

Attendance: 15,000 (sold out) at Voith-Arena (Heidenheim)