VfL Wolfsburg head to Belgian side KAA Gent for today’s UEFA Champions League round-of-16, first-leg tie with renewed confidence after Germany’s Julian Draxler helped break their six-match winless streak.
DFB Pokal holders Wolfsburg powered their way into the knockout stages by beating Louis van Gaal’s Manchester United 3-2 at home in December last year to condemn the Red Devils to the UEFA Europa League.
Germany midfielder Draxler ran riot, while Brazilian defender Naldo headed two goals to put Wolfsburg in the round-of-16 for the first time in the club’s history, but since beating United the Germans had failed to win any of their next five games until Draxler scored in Saturday’s 2-0 win over Ingolstadt 04 in the Bundesliga.
The 22-year-old World Cup winner finished a move he started, before defender Robin Knoche added the second after halftime.
Having been booed while losing at Schalke 04 the week before, Wolfsburg’s victory gave the side much-needed confidence ahead of the trip to Belgium.
“The fans were right to criticize us,” said Draxler, who cost Wolfsburg 35 million euros (US$39.4 million) from Schalke in August last year. “We hadn’t shown for a while what we could do. We’ve drawn a line under things now and got the three points we needed.”
However, Wolfsburg head coach Dieter Hecking has warned his side to expect a much tougher test at Gent than Ingolstadt provided.
“We mustn’t make so many mistakes,” Hecking said after 124 of his side’s 377 passes went astray on Saturday. “We need more ball possession to make the opponent chase after us.”
“Julian had his moment, he looked dangerous in front of goal, which is why we signed him, but he is also struggling for form,” he said. “What applies to him also goes for the whole team — we can still do better.”
Knoche is expected to start in Gent at centerback for Naldo, who is suspended after picking up his third European booking in the win over United.
Gent’s 1-0 defeat to title rivals Club Brugge KV cost them top spot in the Belgian league to leave them second, but they warmed up for Wolfsburg with a 2-0 win over Royal Mouscron-Peruwelz on Friday last week thanks to goals from Mbark Boussoufa and Danijel Milicevic.
Swiss midfielder Milicevic is doubtful with an ankle injury, but Gent need their top scorer in Europe with Milicevic having scored three goals in their six games.
Naldo expects his team to endure a tough night at the Ghelamco Arena as Gent try to make the quarter-finals of the Champions League at their first attempt.
“They’re a team that won’t lie down, a team that always look for goals,” Naldo said. “They took out some big teams along the way... We have to be ready because they will come out fighting to make history in the Champions League.”
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but