Jonas puts Wind in Wolfsburg sails with vital win over relegation rivals Bochum
With Wolfsburg conceding on at least three occasions in all but one of their previous four league games, and Bochum shipping the same number each time in a three-game losing streak on the road, this had the hallmarks of a high-scorer on paper.
But the mutual fear of relegation was also a factor, and it was this element that won out in a tense opening half-hour, during which only a shot wide from Patrick Osterhage drew any real emotion.
Takuma Asano then fired straight at Pavao Pervan inside the box, before Osterhage capitalised on a defensive error to seemingly put Bochum ahead.
A successful VAR review for offside was met with relief by the Wolfsburg faithful, and that relief would turn to joy soon after, when a rebound fell to Wind on the cusp of the penalty box, enabling him to fire low into the bottom-right corner of Manuel Riemann’s net for his first goal in five months.
Bochum enjoyed the better of the early second-half minutes, with a succession of corners that required the Wolfsburg defence to be on their toes. In turn, Ralph Hasenhuttl sensed that a more balanced approach would be needed to avoid being caught out, and he switched the entire front three just after the hour mark, including the deployment of Kevin Paredes in place of Tiago Tomas.
Bochum manager Heiko Butscher responded in kind with a trio of newcomers, but their efforts to disrupt Wolfsburg’s solid backline fell short.
While there was a lot of understandable tension in the crowd during those pivotal final minutes, there was never any real danger of Wolfsburg dropping any points, as Bochum ran out of ideas to post an 11th loss in 16 away meetings.
They will end this weekend in the bottom-three if Mainz avoid defeat away to Freiburg tomorrow, while the outlook is now far rosier for Wolfsburg in the wake of their first home league win since late November.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Jonas Wind (Wolfsburg)
