Gebhart stops the rot
Nuremberg - Dieter Hecking's 1. FC Nuremberg produced a dogged display to record their first Bundesliga win in six games as Timo Gebhart's second-half header earned them a 1-0 victory over VfL Wolfsburg.
Defences on top
One reason for Nuremberg's recent slide down the table has been their lack of goals, but Timo Gebhart finally gave the 40,000 fans at the EasyCredit Stadium something to cheer about as his effort saw off VfL Wolfsburg. They were sloppy toward the beginning of the match, with Tomas Pekhart the main culprit, twice being denied by two excellent saves from Diego Benaglio in the Wolves’ goal.
There was not much to be seen from Wolfsburg in an attacking sense. Bas Dost, playing on his own up front, was often isolated when he received the ball as an extremely organised home side shut the opposition out in what was a first half decidedly low on goalmouth action.
The story of the game didn’t change after the break as both sides struggled to really test the opponents’ goalkeeper. Nuremberg went close to an opener through Gebhart and Timmy Simons, after two fantastic set-piece deliveries from Hiroshi Kiyotake, while Fagner’s drive from distance forced a good save from Patrick Rakovsky at other end.
Nuremberg had been the slightly more adventurous side going forward, though, and they were rewarded for their ambition when Gebhart eluded Fagner to head home. On the back of their poor run of results, three points were the priority for Nuremberg and they defended their goal with predictable determination for the final few minutes, as interim coach Lorenz-Günther Köstner suffered his first defeat in charge of the Wolves.
Line-ups and statistics
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