Champions League: Wolfsburg vs Gent – Five Things We Learned

“It is a good result for us and if we play like that in the second leg we will go through”, Draxler added.

The home crowd are unaccustomed to seeing their side struggle but they endured a nervous moment when Gent defender Stefan Mitrovic headed Max Arnold’s unsafe cross just wide of his own goal after half an hour.

“We need more ball possession to make the opponent chase after us”.

Wolfsburg could have drawn the likes of Paris Saint-Germain, Juventus and Benfica, but instead they got Belgian side Gent, who are also through the knockout stage of the Champions League for the first time. They were unable to produce eye catching performances in a string, and have just recently snapped out off a five-game winless streak beating Bundesliga debutants Ingolstadt by 2-0. However, Brugge have dented Gent’s form, eliminating them in the Belgian cup with a 1-0 win before defeating them in the league by the same scoreline four days later.

Julian Draxler struck twice for Wolfsburg before Gent’s comeback. However, Champions League was a much different story.

He said: “Gent are a very aggressive side who are strong at home”. It’s the Champions League – everything goes more quickly and you pay a heavy price for small errors.

On the opposite side of things, Wolfsburg is nowhere near where they were a year ago.

Gent were surprise qualifiers from their group behind winners Zenit St Petersburg, knocking out Valencia and Lyon, and they finally showed some fighting spirit in the closing stages.

The 27-year-old, who made his worldwide debut for his country only back in October 2015, has scored 12 goals in 36 appearances in all competitions for the Jupiler Pro League outfit so far this season.

Wolfsburg are hoping a morale-boosting Bundesliga win will help their confidence for the Champions League.

As for Wolfsburg, Naldo will miss the first-leg through suspension.