Brooks and Weghorst fire Wolfsburg into third

Wolfsburg 3-0 Freiburg
Goals: 1-0 Brooks (21'), 2-0 Weghorst (39'), 3-0 Gerhardt (86')

Wolfsburg have made the Volkswagen Arena a fortress this season and looked confident to keep their unbeaten run at home intact on Sunday from the off. Freiburg - who had won six of their last eight coming into this game - made an intense start, but it was Wolfsburg whose attack looked most threatening. The scoring was opened from an unlikely source after 21 minutes, with USMNT defender Brooks sliding home a loose ball in front of the Freiburg goal following a corner for his second strike of the season. There was so little between the two sides, with Vincenzo Grifo and Ermedin Demirovic being kept quiet in the Freiburg attack by Brooks and Maxence Lacroix. Weghorst had been controlled, too, until six minutes before the break. Renato Steffen's through-ball was latched onto by the Dutchman, who superbly slid the ball across Florian Müller with the outside of his right foot to double the lead before the break. Baptiste Santamaria should have done better with a free header in first-half added time, as Freiburg went into the second period with work to do.

Freiburg began the second half in the same manner as they ended the first, as Santamaria headed a Jonathan Schmid cross onto the Wolfsburg crossbar. Santamaria again came within inches of getting a goal back minutes later, but his shot flew just wide of Koen Casteels and his posts. The Wolves bit back well, with Steffen being denied a goal by an offside flag moments after Weghorst had struck a post. Wolfsburg's top scorer should certainly have had a second goal when he met Yannick Gerhardt's cross but was denied by Müller with one of the saves of the season to keep the ball out from the floor on his own goalline. A breathtaking moment came with 20 minutes to play when Lucas Höler met a corner with a full volley from 12 yards out which was destined for the top corner, only for Casteels to produce the game's second save of the season contender to push the ball away with his fingertips. Gerhardt made three the magic number with his late goal to seal the three points and send Wolfsburg up into third place with a three-goal win over Freiburg in the end.

• Weghorst is the first player in Wolfsburg's history to score 13 goals in the first 19 games of a Bundesliga season.
• The Dutchman is joint-fourth in the Bundesliga scoring chart with 13 goals and has an impressive record against Freiburg with four goals and two assists in six games.
• Brooks scored his second goal of the season for Wolfsburg having not scored once in 2019/20. All five of his goals for the Wolves have come at home.
• Brooks and Wolfsburg have the league's third-tightest defence with only 19 goals conceded. The 12 let in from open play is an outright league low.
• This was Wolfsburg's 400th home game in the Bundesliga, where they are still unbeaten this season (W6, D3). The Wolves have so far scored 702 goals in the top-flight.
• Gerhardt's goal was his first of the season.

Watch: Weghorst: "Everything is possible for us"

Wolfsburg: Casteels (c) - Mbabu, Lacroix, Brooks, Otavio - Schlager (Guilavogui 89'), Arnold (Brekalo 89') - Baku (Victor 89'), Gerhardt, Steffen (Mehmedi 69') - Weghorst (Bialek 79')
Unused subs: Pervan, Pongracic, Philipp, Ginczek
Out: Roussillon (match fitness)
Coach: Oliver Glasner

Freiburg: Müller - Lienhart, Schlotterbeck, Gulde – Schmid (Kübler 72'), Santamaria (Keitel 72'), Höfler, Günter (c) - Jeong (Höler 60'), Demirovic (Petersen 60'), Grifo (Haberer 85')
Unused subs: Uphoff, Heintz, Til, Tempelmann
Out: Flekken (elbow), Kwon (knee), Sallai (ankle)
Coach: Christian Streich