Wolfsburg stop the rot with first home win in eleven months

Wolfsburg finally won at home with a 3-1 victory over Union Berlin, who are now lost three games in a week.

Daniel Bauer ended Wolfsburg’s four-game losing streak with a point in Frankfurt, and they dominated Union Berlin from the first whistle here. Patrick Wimmer was a little bit late to reach Mohamed Amoura’s through pass early in the game, but the Austrian scored his first goal of the season in the 10th minute with a smart finish.

If the league had been decided by the first 30 minutes, Union Berlin would’ve been third in the table by now as this is the first goal they conceded in this timeframe. However, Volkswagen Arena has been a difficult ground for them since their promotion in 2019. Wolfsburg won five from Union’s previous six visits, and they were on their way to extending the unbeaten run as the visitors conceded the second at the half-hour mark.

Having picked a yellow card for a last-ditch foul to deny Ilyas Ansah a few minutes earlier, Wolfsburg’s right-back Saël Kumbedi recorded his fourth assist of a fruitful season to set up Amoura. The Algerian, who was playing his last game at Volkswagen Arena before leaving for the AFCON tournament, finished the chance with a ferocious shot to score his fifth goal of the campaign.

Unsurprisingly, Union’s first chance of the game was a header from Leopold Querfeld, who became the first player to score two penalty-kicks against Manuel Neuer in the same game on Wednesday. The center-back forced Kamil Grabara’s first save with the slightest of touches from Derrick Köhn’s delivery. A minute later, he hit the crossbar with another header with the Polish goalkeeper completely beaten this time around.

Union Berlin ended the half strongly with Grabara making another save from Jannick Haberer’s close-range effort. Wolfsburg held onto their two-goal advantage in the break as they looked to end a 14-game winless run at home. Bauer made a change for the second-half as the 18-year-old Jan Bürger replaced Kumbedi to avoid the risk of the Frenchman getting a second booking.

Union’s 38-year-old wingback Christopher Trimmel covered lots of distance to make a remarkable tackle as Wimmer sought a clear goal-scoring chance right after the restart. Wolfsburg missed another gilt-edged chance when Amoura failed to round off Frederik Rönnow.

However, the elusive third goal did come a couple of minutes later after Köhn’s slip. Christian Eriksen assisted Lovro Majer’s second goal of the season at the hour mark. Amoura succeeded in beating Rönnow at the second time of asking, but Wolfsburg’s fourth goal was annulled by VAR because of an offside call.

Stanley Nsoki, who came on late in the cup game for his Union Berlin debut, eased the pressure for the visitors with a superb finish. Diogo Leite’s replacement scored after Wolfsburg struggled to clear the ball from a set-piece opportunity.

Grabara, who leads the Bundesliga’s table for saves, had to be alert to keep Union from further reducing the deficit. The hosts also escaped a potential penalty-kick incident as Union continued to cause trouble from set-pieces.

There would be no way they would avoid a penalty-kick when Konstantinos Koulierakis inexplicably tussled Andrej Ilic, though. The Greece center-back conceded five penalties in Wolfsburg colours, with three of them coming this season. However, unlike Neuer, Grabara expertly saved Querfeld’s spot-kick. Wolfsburg were under immense pressure in the 14 minutes added after the end of regular time, but they managed to see out the result.

Wolfsburg will face the in-form Borussia Mönchengladbach side and SC Freiburg before the Winterpause. Union Berlin, who have now lost three games in a week, will play on Friday next week against RB Leipzig, before ending the year in Köln.