Wolfsburg 0-0 M'gladbach: Bundesliga Match Report

Wolfsburg 0-0 M'gladbach was goalless in both halves, and for one of the two sides that was a good deal better than nothing. Wolfsburg were 17th on 24 points from 30 matches with a goal difference of -25 and had just won at Union Berlin; Mönchengladbach were 13th on 31 with -14, seven points better off and effectively safe.

The Wolfsburg run coming in had been the worst in the division for most of the spring — 0-1 at home to Bremen, 3-6 at Leverkusen, 1-2 at home to Frankfurt — before the 2-1 at Union Berlin gave them something to build on. Two points behind St. Pauli in the play-off place, they needed this fixture to keep the recovery moving.

Mönchengladbach had drawn three of their previous five: 3-3 at Köln, 2-2 with Heidenheim, 1-1 with Mainz, plus a 0-1 at Leipzig and a 2-0 over St. Pauli. A team that had stopped losing and stopped winning in equal measure. Wolfsburg had taken the reverse fixture 3-1 in December, which was one of the few results of substance in their season.

Wolfsburg reached 25 points and stayed on -25, cutting the deficit to St. Pauli to a single point with three rounds left and taking a second consecutive result after a stretch of five that had produced one. A clean sheet is not the usual currency for a side with one of the worst goal differences in the division, and it was worth as much as the point.

Mönchengladbach went to 32 with -14, a fourth draw in six and a season that had reached the stage of running down the clock. They stayed comfortably above the play-off place and comfortably below anything worth chasing. Seven points had divided them at kick-off and six did after. For Wolfsburg the season had gone from over to open in the space of eight days; for their opponents nothing had changed in a month.

Our pre-match call was Over 2.5 Goals at 1.70. It lost, and the profile of the fixture argued against it from the start. Mönchengladbach had drawn three of five, and three of those five matches produced two goals or fewer in total; Wolfsburg, for all the goals they had conceded, had just won 2-1 and drawn 1-1 in the same recent stretch. We were pricing the bet off a 3-6 at Leverkusen and a 3-1 in the reverse fixture — two outliers rather than a pattern. A relegation-threatened side that has stopped conceding heavily is the last team to attach a goals bet to. Verdict: lost