Wolfsburg cruise to victory over Mainz
Wolfsburg - VfL Wolfsburg recorded their first league victory of 2014 as three second-half goals gave the Wolves a comfortable 3-0 win over in-form 1. FSV Mainz 05.
Rodriguez spot-on
Chances were at a premium in the opening stages, with Ivan Perisic’s long-range effort from Kevin de Bruyne’s cut-back the closest either team came to breaking the deadlock in the first 20 minutes. The visitors seemed intent to sit back and soak up the Wolves’ pressure, and could even have gone into half-time a goal to the good, but Diego Benaglio pulled off a smart save to deny Zdenek Pospech.
The Wolves were gifted an opportunity to take the lead just before the hour-mark when Bas Dost was brought down just inside the penalty area by Mainz centre-back Niko Bungert. Ricardo Rodriguez made no mistake from the resulting spot-kick, sending Loris Karius the wrong way for the full-back’s third goal of the season.
Wolfsburg doubled their lead just seven minutes later when Dost picked up Olic’s pass around twenty yards from goal, turned and fired an unstoppable low shot into the bottom right-hand corner. With a quarter of an hour remaining, Luiz Gustavo reacted quickest to nod home a loose ball inside the Mainz area and seal all three points for Wolfsburg, who move level on points with Borussia Mönchengladbach in fifth.
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