wolfsburg show no mercy to heerenveen published: friday 7 november 2008, 0.28cet vfl wolfsburg 5-1 sc heerenveen edin džeko was on target twice as the bundesliga team kicked off their group e programme with a crushing home victory over dutch opposition.
edin džeko struck twice as vfl wolfsburg launched their uefa cup group e campaign in style with a thumping comeback victory at home to sc heerenveen.
turnaround the home side fell behind when mika väyrynen scored in the 31st minute, but heerenveen's joy was short-lived as wolfsburg netted twice in the next eight minutes through džeko and grafite. zvjezdan misimović added a third soon after the interval, džeko brought up his brace just past the hour, and jacek krzynówek completed the rout in the 71st minute.
heerenveen struggles wolfsburg's winning start dealt a heavy blow to heerenveen's hopes of reaching the knockout stage, as the dutch club suffered a second defeat following a 3-1 loss to ac milan. even so, the visitors began the brighter team and danijel pranjić hit the post before christian grindheim's long-range strike found the top of the net. wolfsburg replied with a krzynówek effort that rattled the post, yet it was the eredivisie side who broke the deadlock. väyrynen charged on to pranjić's long ball down the left before turning inside and beating goalkeeper diego benaglio.
wolfsburg advantage the bundesliga outfit equalised three minutes later, exploiting their size advantage on dead-ball situations as džeko headed in misimović's corner, and went in front when ashkan dejagah raced down the right and crossed for grafite to blast home. heerenveen missed a golden chance to equalise moments after the restart, as benaglio fell trying to get to michal švec's centre for paulo henrique, whose attempt was blocked by alexander madlung and cleared off the line by sascha riether.
out of sight wolfsburg shrugged off the scare and misimović doubled the lead from close range in the 53rd minute, before džeko got his second when he volleyed in grafite's chip from the right to put the wolves out of sight. krzynówek finished off the scoring after a long run down the middle, culminating in a left-footed shot into the corner.
