Andre Schurrle leads Wolfsburg to win against CSKA Moscow
CSKA Moscow goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev failed dismally to keep a savable Andre Schurrle shot from winding up in the back of his own net Wednesday night to put VfL Wolfsburg on the way to a 2-0 victory. The triumph gives the German side a real shot at advancing to the Champions League knockout stage from Group B.
Schurrle hammered in a fine counter-attacking goal from Sebastian Jung's pass in the 88th minute to complete Wolfsburg's victory after having come off the bench to tip the match in favor of the German visitors.
By claiming all three points on a night when they seemed quite content to play for just one, the Bundesliga side jumped to the top of the group pending the result of the Manchester United-PSV Eindhoven match which kicked off later. At the worst, Wolfsburg will be in the second qualifying spot when they host United on Match Day six.
Akinfeev's moment of misery arrived in the 66th minute, when he scooped Schurrle's shot from a narrow angle right into his own net. Schurrle ran onto a pass from Bas Dost and his effort appeared to be going across the face of goal when Akinfeev went down and hooked the ball behind him with his right arm. On as a substitute, Schurrle claimed the goal but a review of the tape put the responsibility on the goalkeeper, where it belonged.
It marked the 36th straight Champions League match that Akinfeev had been unable to keep a clean sheet, one of the reasons why the Russians have not been able to make good on their promise in this competition. They will have to hope for a Manchester United win over PSV so that their final trip to Holland would at least hold out hope for a Europa League spot.
Neither goalkeeper was busy in a cagey first half that saw Wolfsburg content with possession and a relatively slow tempo while the injury-hit Russians had difficulty getting control in midfield and were unable to find their front-runners, Ahmed Musa and Seydou Doumbia, with any effective service. Max Kruse, first-timing a pass from Bas Dost in the 36th minute, forced one decent save from Akinfeev but Diego Benaglio was a spectator in the Wolfsburg net.
Benaglio was called into action three minutes after the interval when he had to punch away Alan Dzagoev's free kick from the right, then cover the rebound shot from Georgi Milanov as CSKA showed an urgency that was lacking in the first 45 minutes. Zoran Tosic almost put CSKA on top just after the hour when a neat 1-2 with Dzagoev set him up for a shot from the top of the box only to see the ball smack the left post and stay out of Benaglio's goal.
That marked CSKA's best spell of the night. When Akinfeev gifted the visitors with their goal the Army team was unable to raise the spirited challenge needed to reverse their misfortune.
Instead they were split wide-open by Wolfsburg's counter in the closing minutes, Schurrle making sure his name would be on the goal-scoring sheet with a precise finish.
