It’s been a horrific year for Wolfsburg, two seasons ago the team finished the season in 2nd place cruising into the Champions League, the next year they dropped to 8th, and this season they found themselves staring relegation in the face right up to the final day.
Before today’s game they sat in 15th two points clear of Hamburger SV who occupied the relegation play off zone, and to make things tasty they were due to play each other in an all or nothing head-to-head.
Wolfsburg travelled to Volksparkstadion Stadium knowing a draw would be enough to secure them a position in the top flight next year, and things started extremely well for them as Robin Knoche headed in after 23 minutes to put the visitors in command.
Hamburg 0 - 1 Wolsfburg (Knoche 23')
Hamburg now needed two goals and started their conquest perfectly catching Wolfburg short at the back 10 minutes later through Filip Kostic.
Hamburg 1-1 Wolfsburg (Kostic 34')
Both teams were 50-50 for possession and had similar amount of shots but there were no more goals until the 89th minute, and Hamburg fans loved it.
A classic ‘team in desperation’ goal, Kostic latched onto a long ball up the wing before swinging a hopeful cross perfectly onto Gian-Luca Waldschmidt’s head who gave the goalkeeper little chance.
Waldschmidt is also celebrating his 21st today, and we doubt any of his future birthdays will be quite as good as this
Hamburg 2-1 Wolfsburg (Waldschmidt 89')
That left the final table looking like this:
Despair for Wolfsburg, but elation for Hamburg, and It wasn't long before the players broke out the beers to celebrate with the fans:
???? #2liganiemals #niemals #nurderHSV pic.twitter.com/V854Vmnnoh
— Hamburger SV (@HSV) May 20, 2017
Wolfsburg, who have been struggling financially since their parents Volkswagen were fined $2.8bn over the emissions scandal, will now go into the play-off against whichever team finished 3rd in the 2.Bundesliga (either Hannover 96 or Eintracht Braunschweig) which will be confirmed tomorrow.
A remarkable fall from grace from a side that finished 2nd just two seasons ago.
