BERLIN: Second-placed VfL Wolfsburg breathed new life into the Bundesliga title race with a 4-1 win over leaders Bayern Munich, who lost their unbeaten record in a dramatic restart to the league after the winter break on Friday.

Netherlands striker Bas Dost scored twice in the first half and Belgian midfielder Kevin de Bruyne added two more goals after the break as Bayern, who had conceded only four times in the first half of the season, saw their goals against tally double in a single game.

Juan Bernat scored Bayern’s sole response in the 55th minute, two minutes after De Bruyne claimed his first.

“Congratulations to Wolfsburg, they did it well,” Bayern coach Pep Guardiola said. “The defeat is deserved.”

Wolfsburg, with 37 points from 18 games, have cut Bayern’s lead to eight points, although it would still take a dramatic turnaround for the title holders to be caught.

The last team to make up 11 points at the halfway stage and win the title were Wolfsburg in 2009. Hoffenheim were leading at the time.

“We put in a huge performance,” beamed Wolfsburg coach Dieter Hecking. “When you want to beat Bayern, you need a day like that. The team did everything we talked about and it went 100 percent according to plan.”

There were emotional scenes before kick-off at the Volkswagen Arena with a minute’s applause for Belgium Under-21 international Junior Malanda, who was killed in a car crash earlier this month.

“It just doesn’t get any better. To have the story with Junior beforehand and then this. No one expected it,” said Dost, referring to club’s response to the death of Malanda on Jan 11.

“It was difficult in the beginning after the fans’ action, but it gave us strength and we used it,” said Dost, who opened the scoring in the fourth minute when De Bruyne picked him out to finish inside the far post after a fine pass from Daniel Caligiuri.

Wolfsburg struck again on the stroke of half-time when a Ricardo Rodriguez free kick was poorly cleared by Robert Lewandowski and Dost’s volley spun away from Bayern goalkeeper Manuel Neuer and in off the post.

Wolves went 3-0 up just after the break when Maximilian Arnold’s pass put De Bruyne in behind the Bayern defence and he rifled his shot home.

Bernat gave Bayern some hope when he stabbed his shot past Wolfsburg goalkeeper Diego Benaglio but Wolfsburg countered again and De Bruyne turned Dante one way then the other before blasting the ball into the roof of the net.

“We made a lot of mistakes and let them hit us on the counter-attack, “admitted Bayern’s stand-in captain Bastian Schweinsteiger with Philipp Lahm injured. “We lost our shape and we lost too many balls, it wasn’t our day. We have to analyse the performance and do better.”

Published in Dawn February 1st, 2015

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