VfL Wolfsburg finished the 2024/25 season with a 1-0 victory against Borussia Mönchengladbach, with Lukas Nmecha scoring the lone goal in his final match for the club.
| Gladbach’s Alassane Pléa competes with Wolfsburg’s Denis Vavro and Konstantinos Koulierakis, 17. May 2025. | (Photo by Christoph Koepsel / Getty Images) |
VfL Wolfsburg visited Borussia-Park to take on Borussia Mönchengladbach, on the final day of the 2024 / 25 Bundesliga season. Both sides had a good finish to the season to play for, and not much else; both were in contention for European competition places in early March, but poor runs of form in the last two months led to a guaranteed finish outside of the top six (and, in Wolfsburg’s case, the eventual dismissal of Ralph Hasenhüttl, after they reached the bottom-half of the table).
In the seventh minute, Mohamed Amoura, on the left side at the edge of the Gladbach penalty area, picked out Patrick Wimmer just to his right. Wimmer was able to lift the ball above the Gladbach defence, but he lifted it a bit too high – it goes over Jonas Omlin and out of play for a goal kick. On the ensuing counterattack, Alassane Pléa followed with an opportunity on the left side of the Wolfsburg penalty area, but the French international just missed to the right.
Philipp Sander had the first shot on target in the fourteenth minute, denied by the gloves of Grabara and sent out for a corner, before the ensuing corner went off the side of the goal. Wolfsburg was giving Mönchengladbach a good amount of space in their own penalty area in the first twenty minutes, but the defence was able to maintain pressure through it and keep the score 0-0.
Lovro Majer would get Wolfsburg’s first shot on target from the central area of the box, a low roller around the twenty-minute mark that does not test Omlin too much. Wolfsburg then had another opportunity to jump in front, this time off a mishap from Julian Weigl while Gladbach were regrouping, as Wimmer stepped in and deflected the ball towards the box – Lukas Nmecha ran into the area, with a significant amount of space in front, but his shot towards the bottom-left corner gets deflected away by Omlin and Gladbach were able to clear.
In the twenty-sixth minute, Robin Hack got in between Konstantinos Koulierakis and Denis Vavro, and received a through ball from Rocco Reitz. Unopposed, entering the right side of the Wolfsburg penalty area, he lifted the ball above Kamil Grabara and into the bottom-right corner; however, the officials knew it was offside, and blew the whistle shortly after.
After taking a decent shot that tipped off a leaping Omlin before going over the bar, Lovro Majer brought Julian Weigl down in the Wolfsburg penalty area, but was able to win the ball back in the process; as a result, no penalty was called. Gladbach had a late shift in momentum in the final minutes of the half, with a cross into the box from Hack reaching the boot of Sander on the right side of the goal area; however, he slips, and the attempt goes just wide to the right. That was the last major chance of the first 45, as the two teams went into the dressing rooms scoreless.
The second half started with Alassane Pléa running into the box, blocked by the leg of Patrick Wimmer; the ensuing corner landed right to the French international and he tucked it into the bottom-left corner, but this one was also disallowed for offside.
Wolfsburg would make them pay, as five minutes later, Mohamed Amoura, on the edge of the Gladbach penalty area, makes a pass that splits past Stefan Lainer and Kō Itakura, and lands to Lukas Nmecha with Nico Elvedi tracking right behind him; Nmecha, in his final match for the club, slammed the ball top-centre, and just like that, Wolfsburg were in front. That was Nmecha’s third goal of the season; coincidentally, the other two were also against Gladbach, in the 5-1 victory at the Volkswagen Arena in January.
Kevin Stöger, who entered the match in Sander’s place, almost leveled the score for the hosts in the seventieth minute, as his shot went between Denis Vavro and Maximilian Arnold, off the left goalpost and cleared away from danger. Eight minutes later, Joakim Mæhle, entering the box, launched a shot directly at Omlin, but was denied of the bottom-left corner by the gloves of the Swiss goalkeeper, out for a corner which Wolfsburg would not be able to capitalise on.
The final whistle sounded ten minutes later, as VfL Wolfsburg walked away with a 1-0 victory, finishing their season eleventh in the Bundesliga table with a 11-10-13 record, 43 points with a +2 goal differential (56-54). As for Borussia Mönchengladbach, they end the season just one spot above Die Wölfe in tenth; they are 13-6-15, at 45 points with a -2 goal differential. Both teams resume competition in August when the next season starts, looking to start fresh and perform well above expectations.
