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Despite poor performance: VfL turns game against Malmö FF

2020-02-20T22:11:50.987Z


Wolfsburg (dpa) - VfL Wolfsburg has turned a weak home game in the Europa League. Against the Swedish runners-up Malmö FF, the Bundesliga club won their first round second leg 2-1 after a 0-1 deficit (0-0).


Wolfsburg (dpa) - VfL Wolfsburg has turned a weak home game in the Europa League. Against the Swedish runners-up Malmö FF, the Bundesliga club won their first round second leg 2-1 after a 0-1 deficit (0-0).

The penalty goal by the former Leverkusen Isaac Kiese Thelin in the 47th minute was something of a wake-up call for the previously unimaginative VfL. Then Josip Brekalo (49.) and Admir Mehmedi (63.) met for the team of coach Oliver Glasner.

However, this narrow lead is not a reassuring starting position for the second leg. Because the Wolfsburg-based company has to prepare for a noisy backdrop in exactly one week in Malmö. Zlatan Ibrahimovic's home club was already supported in the Volkswagen Arena by around 4,500 of its own fans among the 13,801 spectators.

As in the Europa League games in Frankfurt and Leverkusen, the victims of the Hanau violence were commemorated with a minute's silence in Wolfsburg. At the start of the game, the hosts then tried to determine what was going on. But the Lower Saxony struggled for a long time, even though the Swedish runner-up had practically no competition practice for more than two months.

VfL, in which captain Josuha Guilavogui had to be replaced by Yannick Gerhardt in defensive midfield due to knee problems, acted unimaginatively against the robust Swedes. In addition, play errors repeatedly paralyzed the Wolfsburg build-up game. They had just one clear chance before the break: After Xaver Schlager's pass, Josip Brekalo hit the ball on the crossbar (38 '). There was hardly anything on the offensive to be seen from Malmo.

That changed right after the break. The Swedish record champion took the lead with his first dangerous action so far: Anders Christiansen headed the ball to Wolfsburg's Kevin Mbabu in the VfL penalty area. The hand penalty was changed by Kiese Thelin (47th), who had not prevailed at Bayer Lverkusen in the Bundesliga last season.

The goal had an awakening experience for the Wolfsburg team: about two minutes later, Brekalo (49.) had the ball in Malmo’s goal after substitute Paulo Otavio. VfL finally found its momentum, even if there were still no clear options from the game.

So it took a free kick to finally turn the game: after the cross from Maximilian Arnold, Mehmedi (63.) was with his head on the spot. Then the game flattened again. VfL Wolfsburg fell back too much into their first-half rout to improve their starting position.

Homepage of the VfL Wolfsburg

The Europa League at uefa.com

VfL Wolfsburg's Europa League squad

VfL Wolfsburg's European Cup record

Game data

The Europa League squad from Malmö FF

Homepage of Malmö FF

Source: merkur

All sports articles on 2020-02-20

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