Football United

VfL Wolfsburg is still the undisputed number one club in Niedersachsen. A crowd of 25.921 in the VOLKSWAGEN ARENA saw them beat their bitter rivals Hanover 1-0 in round 25 of the Bundesliga on Saturday afternoon. The deciding goal of the game came after only six minutes, as Carlos Menseguez scored fort he Wolves to give them their first win since the winter break. For the Argentinean match winner it was his first ever Bundesliga goal for the Wolves…

Perfect start
The Niedersachsen derby in the VOLKSWAGENARENA began at a furious pace, with both sides traying to make their mark by playing attacking football, which produced chances in the opening minutes. On 6 minutes, the home side took the lead as Martin Petrov took the ball off Hanover’s Stajner and started a counter attack. The Bulgarian winger waited until the perfect moment, before passing to the better-placed Menseguez, who a split second beforehand had been offside. Petrov’s patience was to pay off because the Argentinean striker rather luckily slotted home his first goal for the club after the ball was deflected by the Hanover keeper Enke.

Hanover chances go begging
The visiting side created good chances as they moved down the right using the American international Cherundolo and the Brazilian Leandro. Wolves’ hearts were in their mouths as a shot by Cherundolo touched the crossbar before going over. Stajner missed what can only be described as two sitters as he was perfectly placed in the Wolfsburg penalty area. Hanover began to make their mark on the game after figuring out how to deal with Petrov and Menseguez, who had caused havoc in their defence in the early stages of the Bundesliga round 25 clash. The Wolves held onto their slender lead, as the ref blew for half time.

Hanover dominate but…
Although the Hanover coach Ewald Lienen brought on the attack-minded Paunovic for Dabrowski at the start of the second half, the visitors failed to breach the Wolves’ defensive wall. The game petered out somewhat as the home side decide to sit back and defend their slender lead. Hanover looked to be void of ideas in n midfield, and it took until the latter stages of the match before the visitors threatened again. Paunovic missed a real sitter with a header, while Cherundolo curled yet another effort onto the Wolfsburg crossbar.

Keeper almost scores!
In the dying seconds of the match, the Hanover keeper Enke came up field for a Hanover corner, and almost scored! The corner kick was not taken cleanly by the Wolves keeper Jentzsch, and he almost put away the rebound. After the match, the Wolves coach Erik Gerets admitted that his side had been the more fortunate on the day. He did however quite rightly point out, that the Wolves have had almost no luck at all over the past few weeks. The win keeps them in 8th place in the Bundesliga table, and nicely poised for the coming games.

WOLFSBURG: Jentzsch - Rytter, Quiroga, Hofland - Thiam - Karhan, Schnoor - Fischer - Menseguez, Klimowicz, M. Petrov

HANOVER: Enke - Cherundolo, Mertesacker, Zuraw, Vinicius - de Guzman, Lala, Dabrowski - Krupnikovic - Leandro, Stajner

GOALS: 1-0, Menseguez (6')

BUNDESLIGA

Pos. Team Pld Pts
1. Schalke 25 53
2. Bayern 25 50
3. Stuttgart 25 45
4. Bremen 25 44
5. Hamburg 25 43
...
8. Wolfsburg 25 37

Source: vfl-wolfsburg.de