Bundesliga: Ten Wolfsburg players cannot stop Bayer Leverkusen

VfL will remain winless in 2024

Undeterred by FC Bayern’s goal festival, Bayer Leverkusen did their job, not brilliantly but safely, and extended their lead at the top of the Bundesliga table to ten points. 28 hours after the series champions’ furious 8-1 win against Mainz 05, Leverkusen won 2-0 (1-0) against VfL Wolfsburg after being outnumbered for more than an hour. Eight minutes after the yellow-red card against VfL professional Moritz Jenz (28th minute), Nathan Tella put Bayer in the lead (36th), Florian Wirtz (86th) put the late finishing touch in front of 29,314 fans.

The Werkself missed the opportunity to improve, but the first championship title in the club’s history is becoming more and more within reach nine games before the end of the season. With 21 wins, Bayer has now not only set the club record in a Bundesliga season, but also the same number of wins and only four points less than Bayern last year as champions at the end of the season. They also averted a home curse in the duel between both clubs; in the previous 15 games between Leverkusen and Wolfsburg, the home team had never won.

The Wolfsburg team, who are still winless in 2024, have the worst interim balance after a 25th matchday in their league history. Despite the good defensive performance on Sunday, it seems difficult to imagine that coach Niko Kovac, who played in Leverkusen from 1996 to 1999, will be allowed to continue beyond the end of the season.

After the eight changes before the 2-2 draw in the Europa League at Karabakh Agdam, Alonso rotated back six times. Without the suspended Jeremie Frimpong, he regrouped his team tactically, with a back four made up of four trained central defenders and the regular left-back Alejandro Grimaldo on the attacking wing. Even in this formation, Bayer almost always had the ball. Wolfsburg chased diligently and after eleven minutes had already warned two players for tactical fouls against Florian Wirtz.

Bayer’s first chance only came in the 22nd minute, when Wirtz hit the post after a remarkable one-two with Granit Xhaka. VfL keeper Koen Casteels deflected the ball with his fingertips. Shortly afterwards, his colleague Lukas Hradecky also had to intervene in a 20-meter shot from Cedric Zesiger (25th).

The guests seemed to find their way into the game, Ridle Baku got a shot, but then the early warnings took revenge when Jenz came a step too late against Patrik Schick and had to leave the pitch. The fact that Kovac then took Jonas Wind, his only striker, off the field in order to strengthen the defense with Sebastiaan Bornauw showed what the direction was now. Wind initially didn’t want to high-five the coach, who held him by the arm and tried to explain himself. The Dane continued to shake his head on the bench for a long time.

Especially since the measure had no effect, because shortly afterwards Frimpong’s replacement Tella headed unmarked from Grimaldo’s cross to take the lead; Bornauw, of all people, had lost sight of him. Casteels prevented Piero Hincapie from making it 0-2 (40′). After the break the game became even more one-sided, Leverkusen’s national player Wirtz coldly finished off a remarkable attack shortly before the end.

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