André Schürrle fired VfL Wolfsburg to the greatest European success in the club’s history. The World Cup winner scored the only goal in the German club’s round of 16 Champions League return leg against KAA Gent. Following the 3-2 win away from home, Schürrle’s goal secured his team a spot in the quarterfinal for the first time, where a potential tie with Toni Kroos’ Real Madrid awaits after they also qualified on Tuesday night.
It was a relatively dull affair for the 23,457 supporters. Wolfsburg didn’t want to concede, the guests couldn’t score. Chances were few and far between until the late stages of the match, when Schürrle finished following a superb assist from international teammate Julian Draxler.
The guests from Gent showed signs early on that they weren’t willing to go down without a fight, despite the home defeat in the first leg. The Belgian champions put pressure on the Wolfsburg defence and looked to cause trouble down the wings.
Wolfsburg started cautiously, however, wary not to concede an early goal. Luiz Gustavo was employed in an extremely defensive role, almost playing as part of the back four. Joshua Guilavogui, alongside him in the middle, pushed forward often and even tested Gent’s keeper Matz Sels.
In the second half, Gent were unable to penetrate the Wolfsburg back line. Top scorer Laurent Depoitre, who was on the bench due to an abdominal injury, was sorely missed by the away side.
Schürrle finds breakthrough goal
Wolfsburg slowly started to push forward in the second half. Gustavo offered the first sign of a goal in the 56th minute, as his close-range shot missed by just a few inches. Schürrle had a chance to open the scoring shortly after, but also missed the target. But the world champion more than made up for it moments later in the 72nd minute, when he finished off to finally ease the pressure on the German side and see them comfortably into the quarterfinals.
Real cruise into quarters with 2-0 win
Toni Kroos and World Cup winner Toni Kroos are in the Champions League quarterfinals for the sixth consecutive year. The Spanish side, who have also reached the semis in the past five season and won the competition in 2014, beat AS Roma 2-0 at home to cruise into the next round with a 4-0 aggregate win.
Real goalkeeper Keylor Navas was the saviour early on, making several stunning saves with the game still at 0-0. But in the 64th minute the three-times Ballon d’Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo broke the deadlock with his 90th goal in the competition – incidentally extending his lead over rival Lionel Messi who has scored 82. He has already scored 13 goals in eight games this season. James Rodriguez followed up moments later with his first goal of the season in the competition.
