VfL Wolfsburg has seen a victory in the Champions League slip through the fingers on Wednesday evening. Mark van Bommel’s team led 1-0 for a long time, but had to swallow the 1-1 against Sevilla in the final phase due to intervention by VAR Kevin Blom after an extremely debatable penalty kick. Red Bull Salzburg was 2-1 too strong for Lille OSC at home after it received the fourth and fifth penalty of this Champions League season. Sven Botman made a mistake on the first penalty kick.
VfL Wolfsburg – Sevilla 1-1
The duel between Wolfsburg and Sevilla was not very uplifting. Wout Weghorst started in the base for the home team, while Micky van de Ven took a seat on the bench. The first opportunities were for the visitors. After half an hour of play, Suso seemed to be heading Sevilla in the lead, but his effort could barely be taken off the line by the observant Kevin Mbabu. The second danger of Suso’s match also did not lead to a goal. This time he pulled in from the right to lash out with the left, but found Koen Casteels in his way.
At the start of the second half, Karim Rekik came in the lines at Sevilla, but the best opportunities were for Wolfsburg. Early in the second half, Van Bommel’s team took the lead through Steffen, who hit the rebound after a header from Weghorst could still be blocked. Weghorst then had two more great chances to expand the score, but failed to do so. In his second attempt, in particular, he failed to claim a starring role. The striker only went to goalkeeper Bono, but saw his effort go wide of the goal through the legs of the Sevilla goalkeeper.
On the other hand, Sevilla was accurate, albeit with the help of VAR Kevin Blom. Josuha Guilavogui hit Fernando’s leg in the defense and saw that action was punished with a penalty kick and a second yellow card. Ivan Rakitic took advantage of the opportunity and sent Casteels into the wrong corner. Wolfsburg was fortunate in the remainder that the game was not lost after all, as Munir El Haddadi headed the ball from close range on the inside of the post.
Red Bull Salzburg – Lille OSC 2-1
Just like against Sevilla, the duel with Lille was also dominated by penalties for Red Bull Salzburg. The first time the ball hit the spot was after half an hour of play, when Botman made an alleged foul and referee Halil Umut Meler put the ball at eleven meters. Karim Adeyemi took advantage of the opportunity himself and gave the home team the lead: 1-0. Salzburg was given the opportunity to double the score before half-time via former Ajax players Rasmus Kristensen and Maximilian Wöber, but both defenders were unable to do so.
In the second company, the 2-0 followed, when Meler pointed to the dot for the second time. This time Wöber shot a free kick on the arm of Burak Yilmaz and it was again Adeyemi who kept his cool from the staff kick mark: 2-0. Lille did do something in return via Yilmaz, who scored from a free kick in the short corner and surprised goalkeeper Philipp Köhn, but the French got no further than that. Salzburg leads Group G with four points from two matches.