Dost leads Wolfsburg over Hertha; Gladbach steal late point at Hamburg
Unstoppable Bas Dost added two more goals to his growing account Sunday night as VfL Wolfsburg crept back to within eight points of Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich with a victory over relegation-threatened Hertha BSC Berlin.
That was eight goals in his last three games and 11 in 11 Bundesliga matches for the 25-yard old Dutch striker, who replaced the now-departed Ivica Olic at the head of the attack. He is now third in the league scoring race behind Arjen Robben (16) and Alexander Meier (14).
Unbeaten at home this season (10-2-0) and winners of six of their last seven matches, Wolfsburg is unlikely to challenge Bayern for first place, but this latest success opened a 10-point gap over third placed Borussia Moenchengladbach in their continued march toward a Champions League spot for next season.
Hertha, which has been a yo-yo team in recent seasons, bouncing between the top flight and the Zweizliga, remain in the direct drop zone, second from bottom with only VfB Stuttgart worse-placed.
It took just 11 minutes for Dost to open the scoring even though he almost mishit his shot from close range. Vieirinha's cross was brilliantly headed on by Andre Schuerrle to fall for Dost to score.
Hertha had trouble mounting much but when they did attack on the half hour they got a full reward. Valentin Stocker beat Sebastian Jung on the left side of the box, then crossed low across the face of goal where the diving Julian Schieber buried his header to make it 1-1.
Hertha dug in after getting even, not even bothering to create a shot on goal, but concentrating on preventing Wolfsburg from finding a way through their defensive pack.
That worked until the 74th minute when Luiz Gustavo's 30-yard drive crashed off the right post and came right back into Dost's path. The red-hot scoring star did not miss from close range.
In Sunday's earlier game, Branimir Hrgota headed in a stoppage time goal to allow Borussia Moenchengladbach to steal a late point in a 1-1 draw at Hamburger SV. A Zoltan Stieber strike had appeared to the game winner before Hrgota rose to a corner kick, powered his header to the near post corner, and enabled Gladbach to open a two-point lead over Shalke in the race for the final guaranteed Bundesliga Champions League spot next season.
Gladbach, which has not won a match on the Sunday after they had played a Europa League midweek match, scraped the draw after their second half performance had sagged.
For HSV the draw probably will feel like a loss, as three points would have lifted them far enough away from the drop zone that it might finally have been possible for them to allay the worries about relegation which have plagued the team for two seasons. Instead, although their last six matches have netted 9 of a possible 18 points to climb away from the immediate danger area their escape is by no means guaranteed.
Gladbach started well but squandered two chances in the first five minutes, then failed to make effective use of first half possession. Max Kruse snapped a shot past the left post in the fourth minute when set up by Patrick Herrmann, then Herrman hit the right post a minute later.
Those misses turned out to be significant, especially since Gladbach could not maintain their pace after the interval and seemed content to chase a single point. When Artjoms Rudnevs spotted Stieber with some room to operate in the 73rd minute HSV was suddenly ahead.
Stieber collected on the top right of the box, took a step to his left and then curled a good shot past Yann Sommer to the far left post to decide matters.
Rudnevs, who had come on in the 25th minute when Ivica Olic limped off with an apparent groin injury, had a chance to add a cushion in the 87th minute but snapped his first-time effort from a Johan Djourou cross straight at Sommer from close range. That proved important six minutes later.
Although Kruse missed a stoppage time chance for Gladbach when fired his close-range shot straight at Jaroslav Drobny, he delivered the corner from which Hrgota produced the equalizer
