The Bundesliga kicked-off its Matchday 22 with a Friday night encounter between DSC Arminia Bielefeld and VfL Wolfsburg at the SchücoArena. The hosts went into the game with a lot of confidence after their impressive 3-3 draw against FIFA Club World Cup winners FC Bayern Munich earlier in the week, but they had to settle for a 3-0 defeat to Wolfsburg tonight.

Wolfsburg head coach Oliver Glasner knew of the challenge ahead, but had a clear approach while speaking at the pre-match presse conference. “Our approach is always the same. We’re travelling to Bielefeld with the aim of picking up three points,” said Glasner. “We know Bielefeld will push us to our limits. We respected them a great deal, even before that. Bielefeld show time and time again they’re a good side and dangerous in front of goal. It didn’t take this 3-3 draw for them to earn appropriate levels of respect.”

“Wolfsburg is one of the strongest teams at the moment,” Bielefeld head coach Uwe Neuhaus had stated ahead of the game. “They have played six matches in a row, including the cup match, without conceding a goal. They are much stronger than the first leg game and they are more compact. It will be as tough as the match in Munich. Wolfsburg will give us a hard time in the 90 minutes.”

Neuhaus made the correct observations and Wolfsburg turned out be a tough opposition he had expected. The visitors dominanted the match right away from kick-off and Bielefeld had their difficulties to handle the pressure.

Renato Steffen opened the score sheet in the 29th minute, when he tapped home inside the six-yard box from a Yannick Gerhardt cross.

Steffen increased the lead just two minutes into the second half while taking advantage of a goalkeeping blunder by Bielefeld’s Stefan Ortega Moreno.

The visitors sealed their impressive win in the 54th minute when Germany international Maximilian Arnold put a stunning left-footed effort into the top-corner from 20-yards.

The 3-0 win has sent the Wolves, now unbeaten in eight league matches, into third-place in the Bundesliga table.

DSC Arminia Bielefeld 0-3 VfL Wolfsburg

Goals
0-1 Renato Steffen (29′)
0-2 Renato Steffen (47′)
0-3 Maximilian Arnold (54′)

Line-up

DSC Arminia Bielefeld
Ortega Moreno – Brunner, Pieper, Nilsson, Laursen (75′ de Medina) – Kunze, Prietl – Doan (60′ Gebauer), Vlap (60′ Cordova), Voglsammer (60′ Okugawa) – Klos [C] (89′ Schipplock)

VfL Wolfsburg
Casteels [C] – Mbabu, Lacroix (83′ Pongracic), Brooks, Otavio – Schlager (74′ Guilavogui), Arnold (74′ Philipp) – Baku, Gerhardt, Steffen (74′ Brekalo) – Weghorst (83′ Bialek)

Bookings

Yellow Card
37′ John Anthony Brooks (VfL Wolfsburg)
80′ Josuha Guilavogui (VfL Wolfsburg)

Match Officials

Referee
Dr. Felix Brych

Assistant Referees
Mark Borsch, Stefan Lupp

Fourth Offical
Arne Aarnink

Video Assistant Referee
Günter Perl

Assistant Video Assistant Referee
Eduard Beitinger