Football United

The recent run of decent Wolves form came to an abrupt halt in front of 58,075 in the Olympic stadium in Berlin on Saturday afternoon, as they lost 1-3 to Hertha in round of the Bundesliga. The capital city club survived an early scare as Petrov put the visitors ahead. Goals by Friedrich, Marcelinho and Madlung made sure that the points stayed in Berlin. The Wolves remain in 9th position in the Bundesliga table. They have only two games left to salvage something from what has been a topsy turvey season to say the least...

Quiet start
The home side finally pulled the Wolves’ teeth, although it must be said that for long periods of the game it didn’t look likely that they would. Both sides made a quiet start to the game, and Hertha rarely threatened the goal being kept by Simon Jentzsch. The home side seemed to be lacking ideas in midfield and were at first unable to put Wolfsburg under any kind of early pressure.

Petrov does it again!
On 17 minutes, the Wolves won a free kick near the right edge of the Hertha box. Hertha’s keeper Fiedler demanded a two man wall, which as it turned out wasn’t big enough, because as he did against HSV last week, Martin Petrov took aim and scored with a beautifully struck shot which rocketed into the near side of the net with Fiedler groping at air. The goal did not serve as a wake up call for the capital city side and they only went close through free kicks by Marcelinho (20. 36, 39.). The game dragged on until half time and the Wolves took their slender one goal lead with them into the half time break.

Captain's goal
Hertha coach Falko Götz brought on his Polish striker Wichniarek on fort he start of the second half, and it was a decision which would bear fruit. Hertha began to move forward with purpose and on 63 minutes, Wichniarek fed a superb short ball to Friedrich who stole into the Wolves penalty area from where he scored with a low shot into the bottom left hand corner which left Simon Jentzsch no chance.

Marcelinho scores his 18th of the season
The score remained at 1-1 until 9 minutes from time. Hans Sarpei brought down Wichniarek in the area and the referee had no hesitation in pointing to the spot. Up stepped Marcelinho to hammer the ball home for Hertha’s second and his 18th goal of the season.

Madlung grabs killer goal
Three minutes from time, the game was all over bar the shouting. Late second half substitute Alexander Madlung latched onto a superb 50 metre pass from Friedrich to score with a shot for a change, as opposed to his usual headers. The win sees Hertha go 4th in the table, at least for the time being. They could even have gone third, but Stuttgart beat Hanover at home. The Wolves now face a tough home clash against Bayer Leverkusen in round 33. Leverkusen beat almost-relegated Hansa Rostock 3-0 in round 32.

HERTHA: Fiedler; Friedrich, van Burik, Simunic, Fathi (Zecke, 62'); Kovac, Marx (Wichniarek, 46'), Bastürk, Gilberto; Marcelinho; Rafael (Madlung, 79')

WOLFSBURG: Jentzsch; Rytter, Hofland (Karhan, 79'), Franz, Schnoor; Sarpei, Thiam; Fischer (Maric, 84'), Petrov; Brdaric, Klimowicz (Makiadi, 66')

GOALS: 0-1, Petrov (17'); 1-1, Friedrich (63'); 2-1, Marcelinho (81' pen); 3-1, Madlung (87')

BUNDESLIGA

Pos. Team Pld Pts
1. Bayern 32 71
2. Schalke 32 60
3. Stuttgart 32 58
4. Hertha 32 56
5. Bremen 31 53
...
9 Wolfsburg 32 44

Source: vfl-wolfsburg.de