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Wolfsburg (AP) - VfL Wolfsburg is back on track in the race for the Champions League places.
After three defeats in the previous four games, the Lower Saxony defeated the Europa League contenders Union Berlin 3-0 (1-0) and thus defended third place in the Bundesliga.
The Croatian Josip Brekalo scored all three goals (12th, 63rd and 89th minutes).
Should VfL win their last two games of the season against RB Leipzig and Mainz 05, they would qualify for the most important competition in European club football for the first time since 2015 and for the third time.
The most impressive thing about this serene and self-confident appearance by the Wolfsburg-based company was how much they ignored all the disturbing influences of the past few weeks.
Be it the defeats against Borussia Dortmund, Bayern Munich and Eintracht Frankfurt or the discussions about the still unexplained future of their coach Oliver Glasner - the team simply worked focused on their big sporting goal and again showed the qualities that they have achieved Third place: attacking the opponent early and doing a solid defense.
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The only drawback of the first half: Wout Weghorst (21st) and Maximilian Philipp (26th) should have extended the lead long before the harmless Berliners even got their first chance at goal through Joel Pohjanpalo (30th). Thanks to Brekalo's beautiful long-range shot from 18 meters, the Wolfsburg players had the opportunity to convey another message in addition to their high sporting ambitions early on: After the 1-0 goal, they held the jerseys of Bartosz Bialek and William, who is currently on loan to Schalke 04 high. Both had torn their cruciate ligaments in their knees during the break in the past two weeks.
With the Unionern, the ex-Wolfsburg Max Kruse sat on the bench for a long time because of thigh problems.
The fact that he, Taiwo Awoniyi, Sheraldo Becker, Leon Dajaku, Cedric Teuchert and Anthony Ujah were missing a total of six offensive players was not enough from a Berlin point of view.
Because Robert Andrich (before the game) and Marcus Ingvartsen (during the game) were also injured in the Volkswagen Arena on Saturday.
Nevertheless, the table eighth got better after half an hour - but not more dangerous.
The most noticeable action, a shot from the post by Pohjanpalo (56th), was called off for offside.
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It was precisely at this stage that the game could have tipped over again because the Wolfsburg team took too much time to add the second goal.
Neither a free kick by Maximilian Arnold (60th) made the decision nor a nice attack on Philipp and Ridle Baku (62nd).
Brekalo made up for that shortly afterwards.
When everything was going well, several Union fans suddenly made themselves felt in front of the stadium, cheering on their team with drums and chants.
They were so loud that the players on the lawn could hear them well.
© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210508-99-520787 / 2
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