VfL Wolfsburg have gone without a win for the seventh time in a row in the competition. On Wednesday evening, the Lower Saxons lost 3-1 in Salzburg in the Champions League.
In the end, it was two standard situations that decided who should leave the pitch as winners and who as losers on this Wednesday evening. Twice Salzburg’s attacker Okafor was on the spot, twice he overcame Wolfsburg’s goalkeeper Casteels (65., 77.).
Thus, VfL lost a game into which they had laboriously worked their way after a rather bumpy initial phase. But the truth was also: Salzburg were the better team and had much more to offer than just two corner kicks after which Okafor scored.
Vranckx in the starting eleven for the first time
Wolfsburg coach Mark van Bommel had changed his starting eleven in four positions after the 0-2 defeat at Union Berlin. Lacroix was preferred to Bornauw in the centre of defence, Vranckx made his first appearance in front of the back four, replacing Guilavogui (yellow-red suspension), and Baku and Steffen started for Philipp (bench) and Waldschmidt (muscular thigh complaint).
When the ball started rolling, it only took a good 120 seconds before it was in the VfL goal. Seiwald had a lot of space in the central midfield during a switch situation, he served Adeyemi, who made Mbabu look old in a duel, headed towards Casteels and slid in flat (3rd). It was a perfect start, more than that: Salzburg threatened to overrun Wolfsburg in the opening phase, Okafor hit the crossbar (12th), but then a corner brought Wolfsburg back.
Nmecha and Sucic are not successful
Arnold found Lukas Nmecha, a header – and suddenly it was 1:1 (15.). Now van Bommel’s team was in the game and kept it open, before the break both teams had one big chance each: On one side Nmecha missed (39th), on the other Sucic found his master in Casteels (45th).
After the break, Wolfsburg were still level at first, then Adeyemi tested Casteels with a heel after a corner (57th), before Roussillon blocked a shot by Sucic just before the line (58th). Salzburg were now on top – and decided the game with two standards in person of Okafor.
Afterwards, VfL struggled, but were no longer dangerous. So van Bommel’s team remained without a win for the seventh time in a row. Will the series end on Saturday? Then it’s 3.30 p.m. against SC Freiburg.
