Kevin De Bruyne was involved in all three goals as Wolfsburg kept up their unbeaten home record this season with a 3-0 win over Freiburg.
The 23-year-old broke the deadlock, won the penalty, which Ricardo Rodriguez converted after the break, and then created one on the counter-attack for Maximilian Arnold late in the match. The former Chelsea man has been involved in 36 goals in 37 competitive games for Wolfsburg, with 14 goals and 22 assists.
De Bruyne now has 16 league assists for the season, which means he's closing in on the outright record (20) held by Zvjezdan Misimovic from Wolfsburg's title-winning year of 2009.
Having seen their 11-game unbeaten run ended by Augsburg last week, Wolfsburg never looked in serious doubt at home to second-bottom Freiburg. The buzz of beating Inter Milan in the Europa League was oozing from the light-green shirts from the get-go as the Wolves looked to recapture their previous league form.
The early boost came from Vieirinha on the right-wing, who set up Joshua Guilavogui for the French midfielder to attempt an audacious back-heel effort on eight minutes. The Portuguese flanker was peppering the Freiburg box with some inviting crosses and lavish cut-backs with free-scoring Bas Dost keen to get on the end of one with his trademark near-post run.
But the opener came from the opposite side of the park; such is the plethora of attacking prowess in this Wolfsburg team. De Bruyne charged down the left-wing, beat his marker one-on-one, and then picked his moment to slam the ball into the corner of the net.
De Bruyne teased the Freiburg back-line with his movement, drifting from a central No. 10 role at one moment to hogging the touchline on either side. He missed a second opportunity on 30 minutes before the Black Forest side would have their own sighting of goal. Wolfsburg captain Diego Benaglio superbly tipped Christian Gunter's half-volley over the crossbar with the left-back's strike certain to be listed as one of the strikes of the season on 37 minutes.
While De Bruyne didn't assist the second, he won the decisive penalty, which was tucked away by left-back Rodriguez on 78 minutes before the Belgian turned provider, crossing for substitute Arnold with six minutes left on the clock.
Dieter Hecking's men consolidate their spot in second place with their 22nd win of the season as they prepare for Thursday's Europa League second leg in Milan.
Meanwhile, Borussia Monchengladbach moved back above Bayer Leverkusen into third after Patrick Herrmann scored both goals in a 2-0 win over Hannover.
Hermann netted his seventh and eighth goals of the season either side of the break to make it six straight wins at Borussia-Park for Lucien Favre’s men who are preparing for a crunch period with Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund two of their next three opponents.
But the troubles continue to pile up for Hannover and Tayfun Korkut with the Reds now nine matches without a victory despite having had a relatively promising start to the campaign.
After what was shaping up to be an engrossing scrap between two intensive sides, the first-half was turned out to be something of a non-event.
On 22 minutes, the Foals felt they should have had a penalty when Max Kruse’s shot hit Hannover defender Marcelo, but the referee waved away the tame claims.
Ron-Robert Zieler was aware enough to let several shots from Granit Xhaka trickle wide, but he was alert to hold Kruse’s close-range effort which could’ve easily rebounded into the path of Herrmann and Raffael.
Two minutes from the whistle, Herrmann netted his first of the day, positioning himself well at the back-post to tap Thorgan Hazard’s cut-back into an empty net – the Belgian recording his sixth assist of the season.
Hannover returned from the break strongly and despite struggling to create chances from open play, was close to levelling on 53 minutes with Salif Sane’s header from a corner saved well by Yann Sommer at the near-post.
On 57 minutes, Xhaka’s shot was tipped around the post by Zieler – but the former Manchester United trainee couldn’t do anything about the second that would secure the points on 75 minutes.
Hazard was influential as he carved open the defense to find Max Kruse, the striker then drawing the German keeper out of his goal and sliding across the box to Herrmann who finished off with ease. The Gladbach winger has now hit 13 goals for the season, in all competitions.
For Hannover, a seventh away defeat in a row leaves them slipping agonizingly towards the relegation zone with Borussia Dortmund and Eintracht Frankfurt their next two opponents.
With Hannover now four points above a relegation play-off position, under-pressure Korkut can’t seem to get rid of the question marks surrounding his future at the club.
