Wolfsburg, Bremen, Hamburg through in Europa League

(GSM) – German clubs in the UEFA Europa League did what they needed to do to advance to the round of sixteen, with Wolfsburg, Werder Bremen and Hamburg all eliminating their opponents.

VfL Wolfsburg drew the first leg with Villarreal 2-2 but were by far the stronger side at home.

Edin Dzeko put the Germans ahead on ten minutes and an own goal from Angel Lopez doubled the advantage five minutes later.

Villarreal were given new hope when Joan Capdevila pulled one back on the half hour mark but Christian Gentner restored Wolfsburg’s advantage three minutes before the break. Grafite added a fourth in the 64th minute, 4-1 and 6-3 on aggregate.

Werder Bremen suffered a 1-0 defeat by FC Twente in the first leg but beat the Dutch 4-1 in the second for a 4-2 aggregate result.

Claudio Pizarro led the hosts to a 2-0 lead with goals in the 15th and 20th minutes, and Naldo made it 3-0 in the 27th.

Luuk de Jong then scored back in the 33rd, leaving Twente with the task of scoring one more goal in order to advance on away goals. However, a minute after Bryan Ruiz hit the post for the Dutch, Pizarro was more precise at the other end, 4-1 in the 58th minute.

Hamburg lost 3-2 to PSV Eindhoven in another German-Dutch clash, but their 1-0 win at home was enough for them to advance on away goals.

PSV had a good start at Philips stadium as Ola Toivonen scored the opener after only two minutes, and Hungarian Balazs Dzsudzsak made it 2-0 in the 42rd.

But Mladen Petric scored back two minutes later, and Piotr Trochowski converted a penalty to level the score in the 79th. Danny Koevermans hit the target for PSV in the 90th minute, but it was not enough for the Dutch to secure a spot in the next round.

Hamburg’s Guy Demel was sent off with a second yellow card in the 74th minute and will have to miss his side’s first round of sixteen match. PSV’s Dzsudzsak had already been sent off earlier in the second half.