Bas Dost made it 9 goals in five games on Thursday night as The Wolves beat Sporting Lisbon 2-0 at The Volkswagen Arena in their first-legged Last 32 tie of the UEFA Europa League.
Both sides came into the tie in impressive form in their domestic leagues, and as expected, the game was an extremely tight affair, both sides failing to show any signs of breaking the deadlock. The home crowd began to become anxious, as the pressure wasn't producing any goals.
Hecking's men came out in the second-half fired up, and you could see the fresh injection of energy installed from the half-time team-talk. On the 46th minute mark, Naldo stormed forward and slipped in Dost who finished confidently to put the home side in front into the bottom right hand corner of the net.
The roar of the crowd and the momentum from the first goal had telling effect on Sporting, and they looked nervous in defence as the Wolfsburg attack carried on in full force. The visitors paid the price when Dost got his second goal of the night as he tapped home at the back post from Kevin de Bruyne's inviting curling delivery.
The goal had been coming, and de Bruyne and his former Chelsea counterpart Andre Schurrle were persistent problems for the visitors, the latter forced Portuguese goalkeeper Rui Patricio into a great save.
Sporting never really looked like grabbing an away goal, Wolfsburg's defence, marshalled by Naldo was extremely organised from the first minute. Patricio was undeniably man of the match, and denied Dost a hat-trick as well as Schurrle his first Wolfsburg goal, his fine display conclusively helped reduce the deficit, keeping his side in the game ahead of next week's return leg in Lisbon at The Estadio Jose Alvalade.