BL, MD26: VfL Wolfsburg 5 - 1 FC Bayern München

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MATCH REPORT

Wolfsburg 5 Bayern 1
Ruthless Wolves deal Bayern bitter blow

A nightmare quarter of an hour in the second half saw Bayern crash to defeat against a clinical Wolfsburg side, in a game the men from Munich will seek to forget in a hurry with the prospect of a daunting Champions League trip to Barcelona looming in midweek.

The defences held the upper hand at both ends in a hard-fought and occasionally physical first half, until the game exploded into life as Christian Gentner and Luca Toni traded goals within a breathless minute leading up to the break.

The match remained cautious after the restart and could have gone either way, until Bosnia hitman Edin Dzeko struck twice in two minutes to put his side 3-1 up on 65 minutes. Munich urgently sought a way back but a bad situation turned hopeless when the league’s leading scorer Grafite netted a quickfire brace with quarter of an hour remaining.

The result, combined with Hertha Berlin's 3-1 home defeat to Dortmund and Hamburg's 1-0 victory over Hoffenheim, means the champions slip to fourth on 48 points from 26 games, still only three off new leaders Wolfsburg and HSV, and one behind the men from Berlin.

Bayern coach Jürgen Klinsmann made two changes to the team which beat Karlsruhe two weeks ago, Toni returning from a five-week lay-off with Achilles problems in place of Jose Sosa. With Martin Demichelis suspended and Daniel van Buyten on compassionate leave in Belgium, young Breno lined up alongside Lucio at centre-half.

The Munich midfield was set up to attack, with Franck Ribery and Bastian Schweinsteiger in wide positions and Ze Roberto in a free central role, looking to serve Toni and strike partner Lukas Podolski, once more deputising for the injured Miro Klose.

Closely-fought opening

Ex-FCB boss Felix Magath, whose Wolfsburg side went into the game on a seven-match winning streak, made no change to the line-up from a 3-0 victory in Bielefeld last time out, but it was the visitors who made the brighter start in the keenly-contested early exchanges.

Schweinsteiger headed over and Podolski let off a sighter, before VfL danger man Dzeko and Toni traded chances on the quarter-hour, before Philipp Lahm intervened to block Dzeko’s clear shooting chance.

The FCB and Germany full-back finally tested Wolves keeper Diego Benaglio with a curler, and Peter Pekarik blasted over Michael Rensing’s goal, but some 40 minutes had been played by then as both teams favoured caution over adventure.

Two goals in a minute

The champions almost seized the lead when Lucio, who earlier required a lengthy spell of treatment after a foul by Dzeko, glanced a header just over the bar from Schweinsteiger’s floated free-kick.

Instead, the home side opened the scoring a minute before half-time when the criminally unmarked Gentner rose in acres of space to nod Zvjezdan Misimovic’ corner firmly past Rensing.

But Bayern struck back immediately, Toni claiming his tenth of the season from the rebound after Benaglio could only parry Lucio’s header, the keeper clawing the ball back into play from the Italian’s shot but from a position already fully behind the line.

Horror second half

Eighteen-goal man Grafite had the first chance in a cagey start to the second half, but the Brazilian steered a back-header over the bar. However, few at the ground were prepared for Dzeko’s one-man finishing show on 63 and 66 minutes.

The striker moved to 15 goals for the season with a tap-in from Marcel Schäfer’s cross, before a cool finish after a sublime through ball by ace provider Misimovic.

Lucio succumbed to his earlier injury problems and gave way to Andi Ottl, and Sosa replaced the tiring Schweinsteiger as Bayern sought a way back, but the Munich cause took another turn for the worse on 74 minutes when Grafite spun away from Breno and buried his first chance of the game to go top of the league scoring charts.

The on-fire striker then took matters into his own hands three minutes later with a superb solo effort and cheeky backheel to make it five, killing the game once and for all, and knocking a severe dent into the champions’ hopes of defending their Bundesliga title.

Match stats

VfL Wolfsburg - Bayern Munich 4-1 (H-T: 1-1)

VfL Wolfsburg Benaglio (Lenz 89) - Pekarik (Dejagah 86), Simunek, Barzagli, Schäfer - Josué - Riether, Gentner - Misimovic - Grafite (Okubo 86), Dzeko

Bayern Munich Rensing - Lell, Lucio (Ottl 67), Breno, Lahm (Borowski 80) - Schweinsteiger (Sosa 70), Van Bommel, Zé Roberto, Ribéry - Toni, Podolski

Substitutes: Butt, Badstuber, Oddo, Müller

Referee: Torsten Kinhöfer (Herne)

Spectators 30.000 (capacity)

Goals: 1-0 Gentner (44), 1-1 Toni (45), 2-1 Dzeko (63), 3-1 Dzeko (65), 4-1 Grafite (74), 5-1 Grafite (77)

Yellow Cards: Josué / Van Bommel, Lucio, Toni

FC Bayern

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Reaction to Wolfsburg v Bayern
‘We have to come to terms with this first’

Bayern travelled to the Volkswagen Arena in Wolfsburg with high hopes, but ended up falling to their heaviest defeat of the season. “It’s disappointing, but there’s nothing we can do to change it now,” a crestfallen Jürgen Klinsmann said afterwards. The Bayern coach was the only man from the Munich camp prepared to comment in the immediate aftermath of the champions’ sobering 5-1 reverse against the new league leaders.

Interview: Jürgen Klinsmann

Jürgen Klinsmann, what can you say about the biggest defeat of the season?
Jürgen Klinsmann: “Obviously, it’s a big blow, there’s no doubt about that. We actually played well in the first half and came back strongly after going a goal down.”

What went wrong after that?
Klinsmann: “We made far too many errors when we weren’t in possession, and there were too many individual mistakes too. The way we let Wolfsburg simply knock in their goals was fatal and poor, but we’re all very aware of that.”

Was that a setback for the defence as a unit?
Klinsmann: “Definitely. The players will watch the TV coverage this evening, and they’ll hurt when they see the string of errors which led up to each and every one of the goals we conceded. It’s disappointing, but there’s nothing we can do to change it now.”

You face Barcelona in the Champions League on Wednesday. How will you get the team back on its feet for that?
Klinsmann: “We need to look forward and turn the corner as quickly as possible. Obviously, we’ll discuss the mistakes we made today, but we’ll turn our focus to Barcelona as of tomorrow. We’re all professionals and we have to pick ourselves up, even after you’ve taken a beating. We’ll get back on our feet, and we’ll play much better in Barcelona.”

What does the defeat mean for the title race?
Klinsmann: “We have to swallow this bitter pill for now. We could have taken a giant stride forwards today, just as Wolfsburg have now done. We’ve missed our chance, and now we’re three points behind the leaders. There are still enough matches to play, but we’re obviously down right now. We’ll have to come to terms with this first.”

http://www.fcbayern.t-home.de/en/new...89f92daea0aa7f

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It may seem a bit early to be choosing the “Tor des Jahres” with nine months left in 2009 but even the normally reserved public TV broadcast “Das Aktuelle Sportstudio” proclaimed it “the most spectacular goal in Bundesliga history”.

Grafite’s stunning goal hailed throughout Germany



Just get rid of Ottl, Lell and the other amateurs that we have, ffs!

We can't let them bring shame to this great club.

[Poldi]

I didnt watch the match (luckely) and I have a question: How did Breno and is he better to start then Van Buyten in Barca?

[__-SNAKE-__]

This is what I call a 5 star whoop ass. The team was crap all over, we gave it away and Wolfsburg took full advantage. No creativity, No possesion, just mindless passing. Only Lahm and Toni were actually doing any damage to Wolfsburg, We got outplayed simple, Rensing was clueless, Breno was very good in the 1st half. Ribery got outplayed too, 2 v 1 everytime. Poldi was just........Poldi the invisible bitch. FOR ONCE I agree with O_K about Van Bommel, this guy should get a good pole up his ass, he fucked the entire midfield. Well another day another humilation tnx to JK's genius. I bet Messi is gonna have a good time against us......

[Vargas_4]

Clase culeada

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Bayern Munich Star Van Bommel Furious With Wolfsburg Coach Magath

The Dutch midfielder has expressed his anger with Magath after Bayern lost the match against Wolfsburg 5-1 on Saturday...

Reigning Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich were thrashed 5-1 by Wolfsburg on Saturday, and Dutch midfielder Mark van Bommel was everything but happy with Wolfsburg head coach Felix Magath after the match.

Wolfsburg were leading 5-1 in the dying minutes of the game when Magath opted to make a change. First choice goalie Diego Benaglio was replaced by back-up shot-stopper Andre Lenz in order to let the latter gain some first team experience.

"That was really unacceptable. You just don't do things like that. He showed a serious lack of respect for Bayern Munich with his action," said Van Bommel to Bild.

Magath wasn't impressed with Van Bommel's outburst though and made it clear that the action had nothing to do with provoking the opponent.

"Lenz replaced Benaglio against Hamburger SV due to the latter's injury problem. He had to make way again for this match, but I promised him that I would let him play against Bayern whenever possible," Magath concluded.

Bayern Munich Star Van Bommel Furious With Wolfsburg Coach Magath - Goal.com


Motherfuck a Magath!

Even though MVB is spot on here, I've really had enough of his recent interviews. He should speak less and do more!

If he'd be more influential as a captain and play better, together with his colleagues, Magath wouldn't have had the chance to do it.

[Buddha14]

You guys bash Rensing too much, He's been thrown into the deep end by a coach who hasnt let the team gel together, wtf was the defence doing in the first place to leave him in a vunerable position?