Beaten by Gladbach

VfL Wolfsburg were beaten in their first home match under new head coach Ralph Hasenhüttl on Sunday evening, losing 3-1 to Borussia Mönchengladbach in front of 26,105 fans at the Volkswagen Arena. Ridle Baku gave the Wolves an early lead after just seven minutes, but Ko Itakura’s equaliser against the run of play (53’) swung the game back in the visitors’ favour. Nathan Ngoumou put the Foals ahead five minutes later before Rocco Reitz completed the scoring two minutes from time, leaving VfL in 14th place in the table.

Hasenhüttl’s men return to action at 15:30 CEST on Saturday 13 April, when they visit RB Leipzig.

Ralph Hasenhüttl: “Gladbach deserved to win the game. In the second half we were a long way off the standards we set in the first half. The equaliser may have been fortunate, but we should have defended better under the circumstances. We completely forgot about the basics after that, which is very disappointing. Our substitutions today didn’t inject any freshness or make us more compact either. We made it easy for the opposition. You could tell we still have a lot of work to do, but that’s not surprising. At times we showed glimpses of where we want to be, but you have to be able to hold your own for two thirds of the game or, if possible, the entire match. Otherwise you’ll fall short in the Bundesliga.”

Gerardo Seoane: “I’m really pleased for the players. They put a lot of effort in today and deserved the result. We didn’t lose our patience after Wolfsburg went 1-0 up but tried to stay compact. Our equaliser was a little fortunate but we started the second half well, were good in transition and were very efficient in the second half. After the last few weeks it feels good to get these three points. I hope it gives the players the confidence and energy to stay on the right track.”

VfL Wolfsburg: Pervan – Maehle, Bornauw, Jenz, Gerhardt – Arnold, Svanberg (89‘ Vranckx) – Baku (73‘ Cerny), Tomas (57‘ Sarr), Wimmer (57‘ Majer) – Wind (73‘ Behrens)

Subs: Klinger (GK), Fischer, Amoako, Kaminski

Borussia Mönchengladbach: Omlin – Friedrich, Elvedi, Wöber – Itakura (70‘ Reitz), Weigl, Lainer, Netz (88‘ Scally), Honorat (88’ Jordan), Plea (82‘ Cvancara) – Ngoumou (70’ Hack)

Subs: Nicolas (GK), Chiarodia, Herrmann, Ranos

Goals: 1-0 Baku (7‘), 1-1 Itakura (53‘), 1-2 Ngoumou (58‘), 1-3 Reitz (88‘)

Yellow crads: Bornauw, Wimmer / Hack, Omlin

Referee: Bastian Dankert (Rostock)

Attendance: 26,105 at Volkswagen Arena, Wolfsburg