Having come from 1-0 down at half-time to level the score, the Wolves will be annoyed that they didn’t get at least a point from a game in which they had the larger share of the possession and the chances. Next up for VfL is a trip to SV Werder Bremen next Sunday (7 June, kick-off 13:30 CEST).
Unchanged line-up
After Tuesday’s impressive 4-1 victory at Bayer 04 Leverkusen, head coach Oliver Glasner saw no reason to make any changes to his starting line-up. Yannick Gerhardt and Admir Mehmedi were both back on the bench having sat out the trip to the BayArena.
Wolves frustrated
The Wolves had the majority of the play early on and created the first real chance on 20 minutes, when Josip Brekalo’s close-range shot was tipped over the bar by Eintracht goalkeeper Kevin Trapp. Despite offering little going forward up to that point, it was the visitors who took the lead when Andre Silva was bundled over in the penalty area by Marin Pongracic, and picked himself up to convert the spot-kick.
Glasner’s men became even more dominant after that and Xaver Schlager came close to a stunning equaliser when his fizzing long-range effort went just wide. With half-time approaching, Wout Weghorst was denied by Trapp not once but twice after John Brooks headed Kevin Mbabu’s ball back across goal.
Smash-and-grab
The Green-and-Whites immediately went back in search of an equaliser and they were finally rewarded in the 58th minute. Maximilian Arnold – who scored one goal and assisted two others with free-kicks at Leverkusen – whipped in another fantastic delivery, which Mbabu got enough of a touch on to divert in. Minutes later, another Arnold free-kick caused problems for the Frankfurt defence, but this time Pongracic volleyed over.
Chances were few and far between after that as the contest became rather scrappy, but the Wolves looked the more likely to find a winner, with Brekalo narrowly missing the target. Once again, however, Eintracht took the lead out of nothing when Bas Dost headed a long ball into the path of the onrushing Daichi Kamada, who fired past Koen Casteels. The visitors did go down to 10 men in stoppage time when Lucas Torro was shown a second booking, but there was no time for the Wolves to take advantage.
VfL Wolfsburg: Casteels – Mbabu, Pongracic, Brooks, Roussillon – Steffen, Schlager, Arnold, Brekalo – Victor (Mehmedi 61’), Weghorst (Ginczek 75’)
Eintracht Frankfurt: Trapp – Abraham, Hasebe, Hinteregger – Chandler, Kohr (Torro 77’), Rode (Fernandes 77’), Kostic – Kamada (de Guzman 89’) – Gacinovic (Sow 84’), Silva (Dost 77’)
Goals: Silva 0-1 (27’ pen), Mbabu 1-1 (58’), Kamada 1-2 (85’)
Yellow cards: Victor, Pongracic, Steffen / Kamada, Gacinovic, Rode, de Guzman
Red cards: Torro
Referee: Guido Winkmann (Kerken)
