Resurgent Wolfsburg head to Ghent buoyed by Draxler

BERLIN: VfL Wolfsburg head to Belgian league side Ghent for Wednesday’s Champions League last 16, f irst-leg, with renewed confidence after Germany’s Julian Draxler helped break their six-match winless streak.

German cup holders Wolfsburg powered their way into the knock-out stages by beating Louis van Gaal’s Manchester United 3-2 at home last December to condemn the Red Devils to the Europa League.

Germany midfielder Draxler ran riot while Brazilian defender Naldo headed two goals to put Wolfsburg in the last 16 of Europe for the f irst time in the club’s history.

But since beating United, the Germans failed to win any of their next f ive games until Draxler scored in Saturday’s 2-0 win over Ingolstadt to stay eighth in the Bundesliga.

The 22-year-old World Cup winner finished the move he started before defender Robin Knoche added the second after the break.

Having been booed in losing at Schalke the week before, Wolfsburg’s victory gave the side much-needed confidence ahead of the trip to Belgium.

“The fans were right to criticise us,” said Draxler, who cost Wolfsburg 35 million euros ($39.4m) from Schalke last August.

“We hadn’t shown for a while what we could do.

“We’ve drawn a line under things now and got the three points we needed.” - AFP