Football United

VfL Wolfsburg made an unfortunate start to their Intertoto Cup campaign on Saturday, as they only managed a 2-2 second round first leg home draw against the Austrian first division club Sturm Graz. It was the first game in charge for the new Wolves coach Holger Fach. Wolfsburg will have it all to do in the second leg tie next Saturday, which will be played in the Arnold-Schwarzenegger stadium in Graz. The Wolfsburg goals were scored by Miroslav Karhan (50.) and Andres d'Alessandro (53.).

Goalless first half
A small crowd in the VFL stadium saw a goalless first half, with both sides watching each other closely. On 50 minutes however, the deadlock was broken by Wolfsburg’s Miroslav Karhan. A minute later the visiting side drew level thanks to a goal by Bojan Filipovic. The Wolves found the perfect reply as only two minutes later Andres D’Alessandro put the home side in front once again. The former Bayer Leverkusen player Adam Ledwon was sent off halfway during the second half, after picking up a second yellow card.

Tough task ahead
The Wolves were unable to capitalise on their man advantage, in fact they leaked an 80 minute equaliser through David Mujiri. So the Wolves will have a battle on their hands in Graz on Saturday. They will be hoping to avoid the Intertoto Cup nightmare they suffered last season, as they went out at the first hurdle against the little-known Swiss side Thun (2:3, 1:4).

Source: vfl-wolfsburg.de