Julian Draxler's first-half goal was enough to seal three points for Wolfsburg against CSKA Moskva at the opener of Group B in UEFA Champions League on Tuesday.
Wolfsburg started with a 1-0 victory into their second group stage of the Champions League thanks to the winner by new arrival Draxler. Both sides had last met six years ago in the same group opener. Back then the "Wolves" had wrapped up a 3-1 victory, reports Xinhua.
The hosts staged a powerful performance in front of 20,126 spectators at the Volkswagen Arena while the visitors from Moskva lacked in penetration for over 90 minutes.
The "Wolves" approached the visitor's danger zone for the first time with 10 minutes into the game when Bas Dost pulled wide with his header to work out the first chance of the game.
Andre Schuerrle came closer to break the deadlock following a combination with Draxler but CSKA goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev denied the German striker. Wolfsburg continued to give away promising chance when Daniel Caligiuri got perfectly tackled by Moskva's Georgi Schennikov, who retained the deadlock with 37 minutes into the game.
Three minutes later, Wolfsburg finally grabbed the lead. Their new arrival Julian Draxler made use of Max Kruse's cross to head on the target, where Akinfeev denied before the 21 year old German international tapped in the rebound from very close range.
Despite Wolfsburg's persistent poor chance conversion at the second half, they were rarely threatened by CSKA Moskva, who start off with a loss into the Champions League group stage.
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"This was an important opening game victory. We squandered too many chances but for all that, the victory is what counts," Wolfsburg sporting director Klaus Allofs said.
Eindhoven lead group B with 3 points followed by Wolfsburg with 3 points but with a weaker goal difference, Manchester United and CSKA Moskva.