Criticism of the team & referee
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Dieter Hecking clearly criticized his team at VfL Wolfsburg after the next hard setback in the relegation battle. After the 3:6 defeat in Leverkusen, the experienced coach also targeted referee Martin Petersen. The wolves are now threatened with another negative record next week.
“We can’t concede six goals,” said Hecking angrily after the defeat at Bayer 04. “Especially in the second half, Leverkusen had a lot of chances to score, where we defended very airily and without physical contact. If I concede the sixth goal, that’s just too cheap. That has nothing to do with Bundesliga football.”
Wolfsburg’s ongoing negative run has long since reached historic proportions and could result in the next unsightly record as early as the next match day. If the Wolves don’t win their home game against Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday (3:30 p.m.), it will be the twelfth game in a row without a win. This has only happened once to VfL in the Bundesliga; across all seasons from April to October 1998. Good omen: Back then the series ended with a win against Eintracht Frankfurt.
With the 3:6 in Leverkusen last Saturday, they set a new club record with 20 games in a row with at least one goal conceded. VfL has never been as bad as it is in the table on matchday 28 since promotion to the Bundesliga in 1997; 21 points, 17th place (for historical overview). On Sunday evening, the gap to the relegation place could grow to six points in the worst case scenario. The direct competitors FC St. Pauli and 1. FC Köln can still improve against Union Berlin and Frankfurt respectively.
Hecking: Referee performance “subterranean in many respects”
After the 3:6, Hecking also criticized referee Petersen: “I’m far from blaming the referee for conceding six goals. But from my point of view, this performance today was subpar in many respects.”
His criticism wasn’t just based on the situation before the first goal, which Alejandro Grimaldo scored with a questionable penalty. “It’s not one scene, there are several: This is the penalty situation where he is immediately completely sure. He needs the video assistant for our penalty. Then there is an elbow check from Tapsoba on the halfway line against Jonas Wind, where he should have been sent off with a yellow-red,” explained the coach.
