GGreat relief at VfL Wolfsburg: The sporting crash has finally stopped. After eleven Bundesliga and Champions League games without a win, the Lower Saxony team won 4-1 (1-1) against bottom SpVgg Greuther Fürth on Sunday and initially also saved the job of their coach Florian Kohfeldt.
Returnee Max Kruse and the Danish 12-million-euro purchase Jonas Wind didn’t attract much attention, but the only 19-year-old Belgian Aster Vranckx scored twice in the 7th and 49th minute. Maximilian Arnold (70′) and Maximilian Philipp (76′) scored the reassuring third goal and the remarkable fourth goal. Branimir Hrgota made it 1-1 in Fürth with a penalty kick (44th), which was imposed after the video referee intervened.
“It wasn’t a one-stop game, but it was a very strong performance from us mentally,” said Kohfeldt after the game. “The starting position was not easy. But it was very important for us to take this first step.”
Wolfsburg’s head of sport, Jörg Schmadtke, had proclaimed this game a “final for everyone”. But the great hope of those responsible was always that this game will be the turning point of a season that has been completely screwed up so far and will give the club the opportunity to continue working with the highly valued Kohfeldt.
Instead of thinking about the coach, Schmadtke and his sports director Marcel Schäfer have massively rebuilt the squad in the past few days. The established Wout Weghorst, Josuha Guilavogui, Daniel Ginczek and Admir Mehmedi let them go. Strikers Kruse, Wind and the American Kevin Paredes were added for more than 20 million euros. As a subsidiary of the VW Group, VfL can afford such a rescue package even during the corona crisis.
Kruse misses a great opportunity
The plan to bring a “new spirit” into the cabin also worked on Sunday. Because this time Wolfsburg, who had been so harmless in the end, used their first chance to score in the only Bundesliga game of the weekend in front of only 500 spectators and were not completely unsettled by the equalizer shortly before the break. The young Vranckx scored the first two Bundesliga goals of his career and the first two Wolfsburg goals this year. “We can only be happy that we won this game. It’s very important for confidence,” he said.
Together with Kruse and Wind, the trained midfielder formed VfL’s three-man attack and stole the show from his teammates, who had only been signed a few days ago. Kruse, brought back by Union Berlin, almost gave Vranckx another goal in the 28th minute. The 33-year-old missed a big chance shortly after the break (48′). “Nevertheless, we will still have a lot of fun with him,” said Renato Steffen.
But such opportunities and the recognizable commitment of Wolfsburg did not change the fact that this much-needed success was temporarily hanging by a thread. After both leading goals, VfL withdrew too far. And unlike in the first half of the season, the Fürthers are now a competitive and footballing respectable opponent against whom something like this can take revenge. A header from Sebastian Griesbeck (62nd) almost made it 2-2. In the end, Wolfsburg had the luck they had so often lacked in the past three months.
