Defending champions RB Leipzig were eliminated from the DFB Cup in the second round this time. The cup winners of the last two years lost 0-1 (0-1) at VfL Wolfsburg on Tuesday evening and thus experienced the first major disappointment of the current season.
In front of 16,031 spectators in Wolfsburg’s Volkswagen Arena, Vaclav Cerny scored the winning goal for Lower Saxony (14th minute). Leipzig played outnumbered from the 55th minute onwards because Yussuf Poulsen had seen a yellow-red card. In the sixth cup duel between the two clubs, it was only Wolfsburg’s second victory.
Kocac had changed his team in eight positions compared to the disappointing 2:3 in the Bundesliga at FC Augsburg. Among other things, striker Jonas Wind and captain Maximilian Arnold initially only sat on the bench. Wind has been struggling with Achilles tendon problems for a long time. “Jonas is still in good form, but we have to be careful. We have to handle him like a raw egg,” Kovac said of the Danish international before the game.
But even without the wind, which has already scored eight times in the Bundesliga and once in the cup this season, Wolfsburg were the more dangerous team in the first half. Cerny, who came from FC Twente Enschede in the summer, gave the home team the lead in the 14th minute with a powerful shot into the corner after a fine pass from Tiago Tomas.
For Cerny it was the first goal of the season in a VfL jersey. Even before the break, the Czech, who had been largely unlucky this season, could have even extended his lead, but missed miserably after a catastrophic bad pass from ex-Wolfsburg player Xaver Schlager.
After the break, the guests weakened themselves. Poulsen was shown yellow-red after a completely unnecessary foul on the halfway line, so that the Champions League participants had to operate outnumbered for more than half an hour. But the Wolfsburg team failed to capitalize on it. Due to many easy ball losses, most of the counterattack opportunities fizzled out early on.
Wolfsburg, which had recently lost three times in a row in the league, had to worry about progressing until the end. Also because the substitute Wind only hit the post in stoppage time. However, Leipzig no longer had any high-profile chances, even though coach Marco Rose once again mobilized all of his offensive forces.
Information about the DFB Cup on the DFB homepage
