Hertha 3-0 Wolfsburg
The Wolves lost 0-3 in the Olympic stadium on Sunday evening in round 4 of the Bundesliga. Despite matching the home side for long periods of the match, second half goals by Arne Friedrich, new signing Marko Pantelic, and a last minute strike by the Brazilian Gilberto, ended coach Holger Fach’s side’s fine unbeaten run in the Bundesliga. Skipper Pablo Thiam was taken off after only 14 minutes due to a recurring muscular problem. His replacement Karsten Fischer was stretchered off late in the game.
Hanke on the bench
The Wolves coach Holger Fach made only one change to his side which beat Bayer Leverkusen 2-1 at home in ound 3. Diego Klimowicz played up front instead of Mike Hanke. Keeper Simon Jentzsch was the only German-born player in the Wolfsburg starting line-up. The Hertha coach Falko Götz made wholesale changes to the side which lost 0-3 away to Bayern last time out. New signing Marko Pantelic made his debut up front, while Fiedler, Fathi, Cairo, Gilberto and Okoronkwo all made the staring line-up. Tremmel, Madlung, Marx, Neuendorf, Bastürk and Rafael all sat on the bench.
Early chance for Pantelic
Berlin’s Serbian international striker Pantelic almost got his name on the score sheet after only four minutes, but a fine save by Simon Jentzsch thwarted the capital city club’s new signing from Red Star Belgrade. Apart from that early opportunity, the game became a scrappy affair early on with niggly fouls constantly interrupting the flow of play. On 15 minutes the visitors had a gilt-edged chance to take the lead as Karhan superbly put Tskitishvili through on Fiedler. The Georgian midfielder however rushed his shot and a good chance went begging.
Goalless at the break
The young Nigerian striker Solomon Okoronkwo was stopped at the last minute by two Wolves defenders on 27 minutes, and 3 minutes later Marcelinho saw a fierce shot fly wide. The hotly-anticipated battle of the playmakers Marcelinho and D’Alessandro never happened, because both players were more or less invisible for the entire game.
No penalty!
The second half began as dull as the first had done, with misplaced passes and little goalmouth action. On 49 minutes, D’Alessandro fired in a hopeful shot from long distance which produced no more that a yawn from the fit-again Hertha keeper Fiedler, playing his first game for six weeks. On the hour mark, Diego Klimowicz felt hard done by, by the referee Peter Gagelmann. The Argentinean striker headed the ball onto the hand of Hertha’s defender Joe Simunic. Gagelmann refused to point to the penalty spot.
Goal out of nothing
On 70 minutes, Hertha took the lead out of the blue, as a superb cross from Ellery Cairo found skipper Arne Friedrich unmarked at the far post, from where he easily slotted home a left foot shot from close range. Moments later, second half substitute Mike Hanke failed to score with a free header.
Debut dream goal
Fifteen minutes from full time, Hertha’s Serbian striker Marko Pantelic on his debut,danced into the Wolfsburg area, leaving Hofland in his wake before unleashing an unstoppable shot into the bottom right hand corner. The game was all but over at that point in time, but a fine individual goal by Brazilian Gilberto two minutes into injury time put the icing on the cake for Hertha. The score line was not a fair reflection of how the game really went, but that is the way things go in the beautiful game.
HERTHA: Fiedler; A. Friedrich, van Burik, Simunic, Fathi; N. Kovac; Cairo, Gilberto; Marcelinho; Pantelic, Okoronkwo
WOLFSBURG: Jentzsch; Alex, Quiroga, Hofland, Sarpei; Thiam; Karhan, Tskitishvili; D'Alessandro; Menseguez, Klimowicz
GOALS: 1-0, A. Friedrich (70'); 2-0, Pantelic (75'); 3-0, Gilberto (92')
BUNDESLIGA
Pos. Team Pld Pts
1. Bayern 4 12
2. Bremen 4 10
3. Hamburg 4 10
4. Schalke 4 8
5. Hertha 4 7
...
10. Wolfsburg 4 5
Source: vfl-wolfsburg.de
