Wolfsburg captain Diego Benaglio shows his disappointment after the Wolves lost ground on league leaders FC Bayern München
Wolfsburg captain Diego Benaglio shows his disappointment after the Wolves lost ground on league leaders FC Bayern München

Wolfsburg slip up against battling Augsburg

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Augsburg - VfL Wolfsburg lost ground on Bundesliga leaders FC Bayern München after falling to their first competitive defeat in 2015 with a 1-0 reverse away to FC Augsburg.

Augsburg on top

With the strain of playing midweek fixtures prior to each of their last three Bundesliga matches starting to show, Wolfsburg looked off the pace against a hard-running Augsburg side, who took all three points thanks to Dominik Kohr’s second-half strike.

Wolfsburg coach Dieter Hecking fielded a strong starting line-up, including Bas Dost, Andre Schürrle and Kevin De Bruyne, but they struggled to click in attack. The Wolves were at least compact in defence, though, restricting their hosts to just a few chances. Tobias Werner spurned a presentable opportunity after the Wolves failed to clear their lines and then also missed with a close-range diving header when unmarked just before half-time.

Augsburg were rewarded for their persistence after the break, however, when Naldo felled Abdul Rahman Baba in the box, with Werner stepping up to take the ensuing penalty. His effort was well saved by Wolves keeper Diego Benaglio, but Kohr was first to the rebound and rifled home for his maiden Bundesliga goal. Robin Knoche thought he had salvaged a point for Wolfsburg late on when his header found the net, but it was disallowed for a foul on the defender. The guests pushed hard for an equaliser in the closing period, but were unable to unlock the Augsburg defence and are now 11 points behind league leaders Bayern.

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