Wolfsburg continue winning streak with victory over Hamburg

Updated: May 17, 2023, 06:27 am

In-form Wolfsburg reduced the arrears on Bayern Munich at the top of the Bundesliga to four points with a comfortable 2-0 win over Hamburg in a northern Germany derby.

Ivica Olic broke the deadlock with a goal against his former club before Aaron Hunt sealed a sixth successive Bundesliga victory and eighth on the trot in all competitions for his side early in the second half.

Kevin De Bruyne created both goals for the Wolves, who could have won by a greater margin but seemed to take things easy late on after facing Krasnodar in the Europa League on Thursday.

Wolfsburg's perfect home form in the second half of the 2008/09 season saw them clinch their one and only Bundesliga title, and the VW-Arena is starting to look equally impregnable this season.

Hamburg tried their best to put their northern rivals to the test in front of their own fans, but their early promise, with three shots on goal in the first 20 minutes, soon petered out.

Aaron Hunt scores Wolfsburg's second goal.
Stuart Franklin/Bongarts/Getty Images

Hamburg midfielder Valon Behrami then went close to testing his own goalkeeper Jaroslav Drobny with a breakdown in communication seeing the Switzerland international head the ball just wide.

Although he avoided an embarrassing own goal, he gave away a corner which had consequences with the Wolves taking the lead from it.

The ball was played back to outside the penalty area where De Bruyne met it on the volley and his shot was helped on its way in by Olic just six yards out.

The former Hamburg forward was on target for the fourth time this season, but the first time in five games, since netting in another northern Germany derby with Werder Bremen.

He nearly had a second early in the second half when his lobbed effort only just missed the target before Pierre-Michel Lasogga flashed a header just inches over at the other end with a rare chance for Hamburg.

That gave them a gilmmer of hope but, after committing too many men forward, they fell into the Wolfsburg trap in the 64th minute.

De Bruyne led the charge forward and showed excellent composure and vision to thread the ball through for Hunt to coolly beat Drobny.

The Wolves, who have had a tiring schedule of late, including a trip to Russia, then appeared to move down the gears and take it easy.

Their lead was never in any doubt, though, as they closed the gap on Bayern at the Bundesliga summit.