Football United

VfL Wolfsburg reached the second round of the German FA Cup on Saturday afternoon (20.08.05), by beating second division side SC Paderborn 2-0. A crowd of 4,969 in the Hermann-Löns-Stadion saw Mike Hanke (14.) and Diego Klimowicz (28.) do the business for the Wolves. On 22 minutes, the Wolves keeper Simon Jentzsch saved a penalty taken by Stephan Maaß. Despite intensive pressure from the home side, the Wolves held firm and deserved their 2-0 victory.

Early scare and early lead!
The Wolves coach Holger Fach chose the same side, which was unfortunate not to take maximum points from their Bundesliga clash away to Borussia Mönchengladbach (1-1) last weekend. Although Wolfsburg started the better of the two sides, the first chance of the game fell to the home striker Dennis Schulp on 11 minutes, who tested Simon Jentzsch with a header following a free kick. Three minutes later, the visiting side took the lead, as Mike Hanke converted a fine free kick taken by Andres D’Alessandro.

Jentzsch in top form
Paderborn attacked the Bundesliga side and almost drew level on 18 minutes, had it not been for Jentzsch who saved superbly from a long range effort. Shortly afterwards, the Wolves keeper took the legs from under Paderborn’s Rene Müller, as he raced into the Wolves box. The referee rightly pointed to the spot and Stephan Maaß held his head in his hands, as Jentzsch saved the penalty to keep his side in the match (22.). The missed chance didn’t daunt the home side who continued to come forward. The Wolves struck again on 28 minutes as Andres D' Alessandro received the ball in midfield and passed to Mike Hanke, who crossed from the right wing onto the foot of the advancing "Klimo", who doubled his side’s lead from close range.

Thiam denied a goal
On 49 minutes, the Wolves skipper Pablo Thiam thought he’d scored, but referee Manuel Gräfe, had seen a foul by Thiam and disallowed the goal. The home side went close through a long range effort by Marcel Ndjeng on 58 minutes. Once again, Jentzsch was at hand to thwart the home side. After the match was over, the Wolves coach Holger Fach had the following to say: "We controlled them from the start. My team reacted well and deserved to win the game. I would have liked them to have played forward more in the second half instead of just protecting the result."

PADERBORN: Loboué; Brouwers, Djurisic (Vujanovic, 55'), Bollmann, de Graef; Gouiffe à Goufan, Maaß; Ndjeng, Schulp (Dragusha, 64'), Schüssler (Becker, 73'); Müller

WOLFSBURG: Jentzsch; Karhan, Quiroga, Hofland, Weiser; Thiam; Menseguez (Sarpei, 61'), Tskitishvili; D'Alessandro; Hanke (Topic, 71'), Klimowicz (Hrgovic, 84')

GOALS: 0-1. Hanke (14'); 0-2, Klimowicz (28')

Source: vfl-wolfsburg.de