Push costs Hoffenheim victory
Bundesliga game in Wolfsburg also interrupted
The protests of football fans against the investors' entry also reached Wolfsburg. The Bundesliga match against TSG Hoffenheim had to be interrupted briefly because objects were thrown onto the pitch. Afterwards, goals were scored without there being a winner.
VfL Wolfsburg is treading water in the Bundesliga – and coach Niko Kovač is coming under increasing pressure. In the crisis duel against the equally struggling TSG Hoffenheim, the Wolves could only manage a 2:2 (0:1) draw. It was the fourth draw in the fourth game of the year. Managing director Marcel Schäfer had expressed his trust in the coach before the match and said that they both believed in a turnaround.
Maximilian Beier (6th) and Grischa Prömel (66th) after a hair-raising Wolfsburg build-up error scored in front of an official crowd of 22,917 for the visitors, who have been waiting for a win for six Bundesliga matches. Substitute Lovro Majer (59th/70th, penalty) responded twice for VfL, who had previously played 1-1 three times in a row.
“Well, a draw. Okay,” said TSG striker Wout Weghorst, once in Wolfsburg, on DAZN: “We just can't win games. We don't have the key to winning at the moment.”
The game began with minutes of shrill whistles from the Wolfsburg fan block. Under the motto “We don't care about your deal”, the supporters protested against the commercialization of German professional football. In the midst of the boycott, the team itself also caused discontent – Sebastiaan Bornauw was outsmarted by Beier early in the game, and the 21-year-old scored his eighth goal of the season.
Prömel punishes wolves misunderstanding
Even Kevin Behrens, who was only signed from Union Berlin on Wednesday and was in the starting eleven, could not prevent the Wolves from getting off to a bad start. “He is a player who gives us something that we don't have in this form at the moment: the impact, the physique, the power,” Kovač enthused – but there was little of that to be seen from Behrens at first.
At least his new colleagues were not shocked by the deficit. The busy top attacker Jonas Wind failed to score on the post (19th minute) and then twice on the strong TSG keeper Oliver Baumann. After about 30 minutes, referee Florian Badstübner stopped the game because VfL fans had thrown small objects onto the pitch. But the game continued shortly afterwards. In sporting terms, it remained manageable.
VfL had recently played 1:1 three times, each time against teams from the lower reaches of the table. After just under an hour, substitute Lovro Majer set up the same result with a low shot after preparatory work by Behrens. Prömel then took advantage of a major misunderstanding between Wolves keeper Koen Casteels and captain Maximilian Arnold, before Majer struck back again in what was now a spectacular match with a justified penalty. Stanley N'Soki had pushed the Croatian in the air as he attempted a header.
