Breathe a sigh of relief at Nico Kovac: VfL Wolfsburg has won the wild basement duel against VfB Stuttgart.
Niko Kovac trudged through the pouring rain in a good mood. The fact that he got soaking wet didn’t bother the VfL Wolfsburg coach at all, instead he hugged all his players around match winner Yannick Gerhardt. In a wild basement duel against VfB Stuttgart, Kovac and the Werkself achieved the long-awaited liberation. Gerhardt and the others even went on a small lap of honor after the 3:2 (2:2).
Patrick Wimmer had recognized a new quality on the pitch. “It was recently criticized that we didn’t show enough passion,” said the Austrian midfielder. “Today we showed them. Everyone was there for the other.”
His team-mate Matthias Svanberg spoke of the hard work “that we still have energy in the final minutes”. Without it, the winning goal would probably have been nothing, which was a great relief for Kovac.
Omar Marmoush (23rd), Captain Maximilian Arnold (38th) and Gerhardt (90th + 1) had previously scored for Wolfsburg, the goals of Serhou Guirassy (22nd) and Konstantinos Mavropanos (45th + 1) were for Stuttgart end too little.
Wolfsburg – Stuttgart: Discussion about Kovac postponed?
With eight points, Wolfsburg passed Stuttgart, the discussions about Kovac should at least be postponed. Stuttgart has been waiting for a win for 14 Bundesliga away games.
VfL were willing without their best striker to date, Lukas Nmecha (knee problems), but after the recent setbacks they were often unlucky. So it was fitting that Guirassy cleverly used Stuttgart’s first chance to take the lead.
But Wolfsburg didn’t collapse afterwards, but defended itself: 73 seconds later, Nmecha substitute Marmoush equalized after a fine combination against his former club. The Egyptian scored his first goal of the season from the edge of the box.
Shortly thereafter, Arnold just tried it from around 25 meters: The national player’s left-footed shot actually fluttered into the goal. However, VfB keeper Florian Müller cut a very bad figure in the scene.
The 24,125 spectators didn’t see a high-class game, but it was quite entertaining. Because both teams made a lot of mistakes, it went back and forth. Mavropanos equalized again before the break because the Wolves defense collectively refused to work after a corner.
After that, both teams rested a bit, goal area scenes were suddenly scarce. However, Stuttgart’s Silas Katompa Mvumpa hit the bar after a solo (57th). On the other side, Jakub Kaminski (74th) sniffed the lead. So it remained exciting until the end – and Gerhardt struck.
VfL Wolfsburg – VfB Stuttgart: The voices
Niko Kovac (VfL Wolfsburg coach): “We saw a very good Wolfsburg team, they wanted to win and they believed in it until the end. We’re happy and we’re happy, but it’s only three points. It wasn’t all bad before and not everything is great now. “
Pellegrino Matarazzo (VfB Stuttgart coach): “Obviously we’re very disappointed, all three goals we conceded were avoidable. But we’ve already shown that we’re always capable of getting back up. It’s in our DNA. I believe we can do it now.”
VfL Wolfsburg – VfB Stuttgart: The data of the game
Wolfsburg: Casteels – Baku, Lacroix (85th Bornauw), van de Ven, Paulo Otavio – Arnold – Svanberg, Gerhardt – Wimmer (85th Nmecha), Marmoush (90th+4 Franjic), Kaminski (76th Paredes). – Coach: Kovac
