18th matchday
Bochum (dpa) – New year, old problems – VfL Wolfsburg continued its downward trend at the start of the second half of the season. In the 0: 1 (0: 0) in Bochum, the team of coach Florian Kohfeldt had to accept the sixth Bundesliga defeat in a row.
Wolfsburg is only two points away from relegation rank 16. In the empty Vonovia Ruhrstadion, Bochum’s goalscorer Milos Pantovic (65th minute) gave the former Champions League participant from Wolfsburg a negative club record on Sunday. The previous mark from 2004 was five defeats in a row.
In contrast, the hosts benefited from their home strength even without the support of their fans. Thanks to the fifth success in his own stadium, the climber climbed to eleventh place.
Bochum starts boldly
Despite the Wolfsburg’s good intentions to do better than at the end of the first half of the season, VfL Bochum got off to a better start. Only the courageous rescue operation by John Anthony Brooks after a shot by Takuma Asano (3rd) prevented the North Germans from falling behind early.
The team of Bochum’s soccer teacher Thomas Reis, who was the U19 coach for the “Wolves” from 2016 to 2019, stayed on the trigger in the following minutes with a lot of running work and a courageous duel. However, the Revierclub initially no longer created any really compelling chances. It was only when Danilo Soares shot from the edge of the penalty area in the 21st minute that the goal was again recognizable.
It took Wolfsburg even longer to move forward in the game. Promising for the first time, they approached the opposing goal in the 26th minute when the slightly deflected long shot from Ridle Baku narrowly missed. However, this did not help to increase the until then modest entertainment value of the game.
Pantovic hits with his head
It was similarly dreary until the break. Both teams made too many bad passes, avoided the risk and remained alarmingly harmless in attack.
Even after the restart, Bochum got off to a better start and missed the possible 1-0 with a weak header from Anthony Losilla (48th) into the arms of goalkeeper Koen Casteels. Only five minutes later the Wolfsburg approached a goal in a volley from Baku.
After all, both teams now increased the pace. That paid off quickly for the Bochumers. After a cross from Gerrit Holtmann, Milos Pantovic headed to the spot and brought the Revierclub into the lead from close range. Wolfsburg then pushed for the equalizer, but remained unsuccessful.
.
ttn-10