Fifty-six days after Wolfsburg locked horns with TSG Hoffenheim in their final league match of 2022, the two teams faced each other once again on Friday in their first friendly of the new year. At the Green-and-Whites’ training complex in Almancil, the Wolves beat the Kraichgau club 3-2 thanks to goals from Luca Waldschmidt (42’), Kevin Paredes (72’) and Jakub Kaminski (87’).
Before returning to Bundesliga action against SC Freiburg on Saturday 21 January (15:30 CET), Niko Kovac’s side take on FC Augsburg in a double header on Saturday 14 January, right after their training camp in Portugal. The first game takes place at FCA’s training ground at 13:00 CET before a second encounter at the WWK Arena at 15:00 CET.
“Result is secondary”
VfL head coach Niko Kovac: “After such a long time, it was good that the lads were able to face another opponent for a change, rather than always playing against each other in training. I don’t want to overemphasise the importance of the result – that’s secondary. I saw some good things, but we still have to work on a lot of other things. We still have two weeks to ensure we do better, though.”
VfL Wolfsburg – First half: Casteels – Baku, Lacroix, Guilavogui, Otavio – Arnold – F. Nmecha, Ambros – Waldschmidt, Marmoush – Wind
VfL Wolfsburg – Second half: Pervan – Fischer, Bornauw, van de Ven, Paredes – Franjic – M. Philipp, Svanberg – Wimmer, Kaminski – Pejcinovic
TSG Hoffenheim: Baumann (46‘ L. Philipp) – Kabak (46’ Akpoguma), Vogt (76‘ Bicakcic), Nsoki – Skov (76‘ Kaderabek), Angelino, Geiger (46’ Rudy), Baumgartner (76’ Becker), Stiller – Bebou (46’ Dabbur), Dolberg
Goals: 0-1 Skov (30‘), 1-1 Waldschmidt (42‘), 2-1 Paredes (72‘), 2-2 Skov (73‘), 3-2 Kaminski (87‘)
