With just two minutes on the clock, Alexander Madlung was forced to make a desperate last gasp clearance from Vedad Ibisevic. Shortly afterwards, Marcel Schäfer blocked a Harnik and minutes later, the same situation occurred again, with Schäfer again clearing a shot from the Austrian international for a corner. In the early phases, VfL stood deep and allowed the hosts to come at them whilst waiting for VfB to make mistakes.

Bruno Labbadia’s men were making no errors early on though and in the 13^th minute, Christian Gentner, who was captain in the absence of Serdar Tasci, sent Harnik on his way. The VfB winger lobbed the ball cleverly over the onrushing Benaglio but, in the middle, Tamas Hajnal was unable to make contact and missed out on the opportunity to give VfB the lead. As often is the case, wasted chances are cruelly punished and that was to be the case here too. Wolfsburg hit on the break, with Mario Mandzukic squaring for Patrick Helmes to make it 1-0 for the visitors – a lad they would take into the break.

Labbadia’s eleven bounce back

The second half took some time to match the pace of the first, but when it did, it did so with great intensity. Again VfB had chances to equalise through Ibisevic and Gentner, but again wasted chances were to prove, almost, fatal! On the hour mark, as the heavens opened over the Mercedes-Benz Arena, Marco Russ finished off a swift VfL move to make it 2-0! The setback was a difficult one to swallow for Labbadia’s eleven, but the home side never dropped their heads and their determination was to be rewarded.

In the 73^rd minute, Delpierre headed a Hajnal corner on to Cacau, whose resulting header beat the VfL keeper to make it 1-2. The Green-White’s defence was clearly nervous and just four minutes later, it was all level. From a Sakai cross, Benaglio could only bat the ball down and Maza was on hand to pick up the pieces and slam the ball over the line to equalise.