- In his first home game after taking over the reins at Wolfsburg, Bruno Labbadia knew his side, hovering just above the relegation playoff place, needed to beat high flying Leverkusen. With winter transfer and former [INAUDIBLE] Leverkusen striker Admir Mehmedi in his starting lineup, Labbadia was hoping for some insider tips on how to get past Heiko Herrlich's team.

Wolfsburg started the game energetically enough, and tried to execute their plan of going back to basics and doing the simple things well. With just over a quarter of an hour gone, Maximilian Arnold demonstrated he could do the difficult things too. 15 minutes later, Arnold was guilty of not doing something well at all. His challenge on Kai Havertz resulting in a penalty for the visitors.

Lucas Alario had started the game after only coming on as a sub in their two previous matches, and he took responsibility for the penalty. It was the first one he'd taken for Leverkusen, and he slotted home cooly. His sixth goal of the campaign, and also the sixth straight penalty success for Leverkusen. The visitors were well worth the lead at the break with Bruno Labbadia's side rarely looking dangerous.

The second half saw little change until, with just under 15 minutes to play, things really took off. Firstly, substitute Julian Brandt combined beautifully with Lucas Alario to score Leverkusen's second. The former Wolfsburg Academy player delighted in scoring against his old club. And just a minute later, although this time with a much more subdued celebration, Admir Mehmedi did the same, scoring against a side where he played 62 top flight matches, and put in seven goals, his first in Wolfsburg colors since his arrival in January.

Wolfsburg couldn't grab an equalizer, though, and a poor performance was racked up by the sending off of defender William in the last minute. Two yellow cards in the space of 10 minutes meant that Wolfsburg finished the game with 10 men. A 2-1 home defeat sending the Wolfs well and truly into the relegation dog fights.