Wolves wounded by superior Stuttgart
Stuttgart moved out of the relegation playoff place after collecting their first away victory of the Bundesliga season, with a comfortable 2-0 win over Wolfsburg at the Volkswagen Arena. Konstantinos Mavropanos and Philipp Förster both netted to condemn Wolfsburg to their fifth consecutive defeat in all competitions.
| Kostas Mavropanos. |
Stuttgart struggled to threaten in the early stages, but they managed to break the deadlock in the 25th minute thanks to a spectacular strike from Konstantinos Mavropanos, who thundered the ball into the top corner from the edge of the penalty area.
Florian Müller denied Wolfsburg an immediate response, palming away Maximilian Arnold's fierce free-kick. In the first period, Tanguy Coulibaly was proving to be a thorn in the side of the hosts, with the majority of Stuttgart’s best work coming down the left-wing. Following a composed first half performance, the visitors took a deserved one-goal lead into the break.
Having failed to win in their last six games in all competitions, Wolfsburg knew they would have a mountain to climb in the second period if they wanted to end that dismal run. The second half started poorly for Die Wölfe as Paulo Otávio picked up a nasty-looking injury in innocuous circumstances.
The home side’s miserable evening deteriorated further, when Coulibaly’s cut-back was guided home by Philipp Förster, who scored for the second game in a row. Wolfsburg attempted to claw themselves back into the contest, but they were lacking the required quality in the final third. Their struggle in front of goal was on full display, when Lukas Nmecha blasted over from close range.
Pellegrino Matarazzo’s side had a chance to grab a third from the penalty spot after a VAR review confirmed that Arnold had handled in the area. The responsibility fell to Omar Marmoush, who had the opportunity to score against his parent club, but the forward was left red-faced after seeing his panenka attempt bounce off the crossbar.
Stuttgart saw the remainder of the encounter out in relative comfort and as a result of the impressive win, they keep up their recent positive run of results that has seen them collect seven points from their last three outings. Meanwhile, Wolfsburg’s woes continue as they enter the midweek round of fixtures without a win in their last seven competitive games.
