Bredlow to the fore
Bruno Labbadia’s charges began somewhat nervously, losing possession all too easily in the opening stages of the game. Nevertheless, VfB still carved out the first chance in the 16th minute through a long-range Gil Dias effort that Koen Casteels saved. Jakub Kaminski had an opportunity to give Wolfsburg the lead just seconds later but was thwarted by a brilliant stop by Fabian Bredlow. The match remained a cautious affair until half-time, with both sides unable to gain much momentum due to the high number of mistakes.
Marmoush breaks the deadlock
Wolfsburg were much improved in the second half and took the lead in the 56th minute through a former Stuttgart player. Omar Marmoush was given time and space to shoot from around 20 metres out and found the bottom-left corner for the visitors. VfB responded by making four substitutions, but even those wholesale changes were unable to produce an equaliser as Wolfsburg saw out the win.
Goals:
56th minute (0-1): The defence backs off as Marmoush strides forward, allowing him to fire the ball into the bottom corner from just outside the box.
Reaction:
Bruno Labbadia, VfB head coach: “We didn’t get into the game the way we wanted to in the first half. We wanted to put Wolfsburg under a lot more pressure. We were happy with it being 0-0 at the break. As the second half progressed we had more of a grip on things the way we wanted to, but it was difficult to create chances against a good Wolfsburg side who have kept plenty of clean sheets away from home.”