Clinical Wolfsburg smash out of sorts Leverkusen

Wolfsburg produced the shock of the evening by thrashing Bayer Leverkusen and severely dented the home side’s hopes of claiming a Champions League spot for next season.

It was a game that went completely against the form book as Wolfsburg took apart Leverkusen, punishing them for a rather hapless performance.

Even though Leverkusen looked to dominate possession and play on the front foot, they failed to create much, whilst Wolfsburg were quite happy to sit back and strike on the counter attack.

As such, it was the visitors who had enjoyed the better opportunities before they found the telling breakthrough. João Victor got in behind the Leverkusen defence after 11 minutes and tried to square the ball to Wout Weghorst but Edmond Tapsoba made a timely clearance.

Four minutes later, Josip Brekalo’s cross fell to Victor in the six yard box but he was denied by a sprawling Lukáš Hrádecký in the Leverkusen goal.

The hosts’ best first half chance fell to Kai Havertz, whose flicked header from a Karim Bellarabi cross cleared the bar by just a few inches.

Then, with just over a minute of the first half remaining, Marin Pongračić headed home a Max Arnold free kick to give the game the goal it was crying out for.

At the start of the second half, Leverkusen manager Peter Bosz made three changes as they looked to find a way back into the match.

However, the first chance of the half fell to Wolfsburg as Brekalo forced an excellent one handed save from Hrádecký with a sharp shot from inside the penalty area.

One of the Leverkusen substitutes, Florian Wirtz conjured their first chance of the second half as he threaded a wonderful through ball to put Moussa Diaby in on goal. Just as Diaby was about to shoot though, he was denied by an excellent last ditch tackle by Kevin Mbabu.

After their defensive heroics, Wolfsburg then found their cutting edge in front of goal, in what proved a devastating 11 minutes for the home side.

It began with Arnold’s low free kick from the edge of the penalty area which hit the bottom of Tapsoba’s foot. The deflection deceived Hrádecký and nestled in the corner of the net. Renato Steffen’s back post header from a Victor Joao cross made it three before Pongračić again struck with a header from an Arnold free kick.

There was time for Julian Baumgartlinger to add a very late consolation for Leverkusen as he reacted quickest to a loose ball in the Wolfsburg box but it couldn’t take the shine off a great performance from the Wolves.

Leverkusen: Hradecky – Weiser (Baumgartlinger 46′), S. Bender, Tapsoba, Wendell (Dragovic 46′) – Aranguiz, Demirbay (Alario 67′) – Bellarabi, Amiri, Diaby (Bailey 74′) – Havertz (c)
Unused subs: Özcan, Tah, Paulinho, Palacios, Wirtz

Wolfsburg: Casteels (c) – Mbabu, Pongracic, Brooks (Knoche 82′), Roussillon – Steffen (Mamoush 76′), Schlager, Arnold, Brekalo (Ginczek 66′) – Joao Victor – Weghorst
Unused subs: Pervan, Horn, Llanez Jr, Tisserand, Justvan, May

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