Europa League
February 26, 2010
After drawing 2-2 in Villarreal in their first-leg clash, Wolfsburg came out firing in the return leg, knocking four goals past Spanish keeper Diego Lopez. The final aggregate score ended 6-3.
Edin Dzeko, Grafite and Christian Gentner all netted for last season's Bundesliga champions, while Villarreal defender Angel Lopez knocked the ball past his own keeper for an own goal.
Dzeko said that he was pleased with his side's performance. "I think we deserved to go through. We've finally found our form. It's working well with Grafite and I'm very pleased about that."
Wolfsburg will meet Russian club Rubin Kazan in the next round.
Bremen do it easy
Bremen meanwhile humbled Dutch outfit FC Twente 4-1 at home to advance to the round of 16 with an aggregate score of 4-2.
Peruvian Claudio Pizzaro scored a hat-trick in the encounter. "I thought the game would be very difficult, but after scoring early and then adding a second soon afterwards it became much easier," the striker said.
Brazilian Naldo scored Bremen's other goal, while Luuk de Jong bagged a consolation goal for Twente. Bremen now face Valencia in the round of 16.
Rounding off Germany's assault on the Europa League, Hamburg lost 3-2 in Eindhoven but progressed on the away-goals rule after having won the first leg 1-0 in Germany.
Mladen Petric and Piotr Trochowski scored for the visitors in a match that saw both sides lose a man to red cards in the second half. Hamburg now face Anderlecht of Belgium.
The fourth German team to make it through to the last 32 of the Europa League, Hertha Berlin, were knocked out by Benfica 5-1 on aggregate on Wednesday.
dfm/afp/dpa
Editor: Matt Hermann