Next defeat
Bundesliga coach wobbles – sports director comments
Updated November 2, 2025 – 8:06 p.mReading time: 3 minutes
In a high-scoring game, Wolfsburg had to admit defeat against Hoffenheim. Things remain unsettled in the Autostadt.
There is no relief: VfL Wolfsburg also lost its Bundesliga home game against TSG Hoffenheim on Sunday evening. In a high-scoring game it ended 2:3. It went back and forth: Mohammed Amoura initially gave the hosts the lead in the 14th minute before Hoffenheim turned the game around with goals from Wouter Burger (31st) and Grischa Prömel (50th). Amoura managed to equalize with his second goal (56th), but Burger also scored his second goal in the 62nd minute – the winning goal.
With the fifth defeat in the ninth game, Wolfsburg only has eight points. Currently that means 12th place in the table, but only two points ahead of relegation place 16. In addition, the Lower Saxony team were knocked out of the cup against second division Holstein Kiel during the week. For coach Paul Simonis, who was already counted before the Hoffenheim game, the air is now likely to become even thinner, even if he received support from sports director Sebastian Schindzielorz after the game. “We will tackle this together now. We have the next game in Bremen in a few days,” he said on DAZN when asked. It is now a matter of taking the good things with us and improving the bad things, especially the defense. “Then we’ll go into the game together,” said Schindzielorz.
The great frustration in Wolfsburg was already palpable after the exit from the DFB Cup against Kiel on Tuesday evening: Immediately afterwards, goalkeeper Marius Müller criticized the attitude and cohesion of the newly formed team. A day later, Danish sports director Peter Christiansen gave a clear speech in the dressing room.
In this atmosphere, the ailing Simonis had to fight for what was probably his last chance against Hoffenheim. And there was initially no denying a visible improvement to his much-criticized team.
The early 1-0 win even showed the much-quoted “dominance” that the Dutchman has been trying in vain to convey to his players for four months. Christian Eriksen held his own in the midfield in a duel, Mattias Svanberg skilfully played the ball up front and there Amoura elegantly rounded the opposing goalkeeper.
How deep the insecurity is at VfL was shown that evening in the phases in which everything seemed to be going for him: after the 1-0, the team withdrew instead of taking this momentum with them. When the score was 1-1, both crosser Vladimir Coufal and goalscorer Burger had far too much space. And at 1:2, several defenders failed to clarify the situation.