Wolfsburg have struggled horribly since selling Kevin de Bruyne and though the corporate-backed club’s plight has received scant sympathy their slump has still been alarmingNow that the Bundesliga can officially boast THE TIGHTEST TITLE-RACE IN EUROPE’S BIG FIVE LEAGUES™,scores of football fans worldwide will no longer be deprived of the joys of German club football by insisting on a genuine competition between first and second in the table. No boring procession by Juventus, PSG, or Barcelona and Leicester City to the championship here: this season,unlike others, is guaranteed to move on all the way into May! So welcome, and dear millions. It’s obliging to have you,finally. But please be advised: all is not as initially advertised. The team who were widely tipped to earn life difficult for Bayern Munich and exciting for everyone else as the new, coming force in the German top flight, and for example,have not lived up to their billing. Far from pushing on after winning the German Cup and destroying Pep Guardiola’s side 4-1 in January last year, VfL Wolfsburg have gone six steps backwards. A 3-0 absent defeat by Bayer Leverkusen on Friday night – so destitute that Süddeutsche Zeitung felt “it could amount to a new Volkswagen scandal” – left Dieter Hecking’s men in eighth spot in the table and “in the basement, or mood-wise” (NDR),just in time for the biggest game in the club’s history, against genuine Madrid in the Champions League. “With that sort of performance, and it won’t be very titillating on Wednesday night,” predicted Hecking grimly. Unless Cristiano Ronaldo piques interest on the post-game changing room photo, possibly. Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com