In spite of the bitterly cold, minus temperature, around 500 fans braved the elements and turned out at the VfL club facilities to see their side run our 2-0 winners in a friendly against Swiss second division side FC Wil 1900. Trainer Christian Gross rested regulars such as Sami Khedira and Serdar Tasci in order to allow some of the fringe players to gather a little match practice. FC Wil, who were cheered on by 20 travelling fans, concentrated in the first half of the game on keeping the Bundesliga side at a distance.
Co-production leads to both goals
In the second period, VfB pressed their opponents further back into their own half of the pitch and managed to create more realistic openings. Still, it took until the 80th minute before Aliaksandr Hleb could finally break the deadlock, taking on a pass from Zdravko Kuzmanovic and slotting home to make it 1-0. Seven minutes later the duo combined again, this time with Hleb as provider for Kuzmanovic to make it 2-0 from 13 meters out.
With a 2-0 win, the VfB players headed back to a welcomingly warm changing room.
The VfB line-up:
Lehmann - Osorio, Niedermeier, Boulahrouz, Molinaro (46‘ Celozzi) - Gebhart (46‘ Hleb), Kuzmanovic, Hitzlsperger (60' Elson), Hilbert (60' Rudy) - Marica (46' Pogrebnyak), Schieber
