Rodrigo Palacio gave Inter the perfect start, but a disastrous Juan Pablo Carrizo performance helped Wolfsburg win 3-1.
The Nerazzurri had been unbeaten in Europe with four wins and as many draws, but Wolfsburg are second in the Bundesliga. This first leg tie in the Round of 16 was the maiden meeting between these clubs.
It could not have been a better start for Inter, as within six minutes Palacio had been sent clear by an inspired Mauro Icardi pass off the outside of the boot and kept his cool one-on-one with Diego Benaglio.
Rodrigo Palacio gave Inter the perfect start, but a disastrous Juan Pablo Carrizo performance helped Wolfsburg win 3-1.
The Nerazzurri had been unbeaten in Europe with four wins and as many draws, but Wolfsburg are second in the Bundesliga. This first leg tie in the Round of 16 was the maiden meeting between these clubs.
It could not have been a better start for Inter, as within six minutes Palacio had been sent clear by an inspired Mauro Icardi pass off the outside of the boot and kept his cool one-on-one with Diego Benaglio.
Xherdan Shaqiri set up Hernanes for a shot deflected over in another promising counter-attack, again started by Icardi. Andre Schurrle and Bas Dost combined, but the German’s finish was straight at Juan Pablo Carrizo.
The goalkeeper did brilliantly to palm a Daniel Caligiuri header out from under the bar, but from the resulting corner Naldo got too much power to his free header and it went in despite Carrizo getting a hand to it.
Icardi was very unlucky when halted clear on goal by an incorrect offside decision, but Carrizo got down well to deny Vierinha.
After the restart the Germans continued to turn up the pressure with Caligiuri blasting wide and Ricardo Rodriguez blasting straight at Carrizo.
Yet Palacio wasted a golden opportunity to double his tally when springing the offside trap from Davide Santon’s pass, hitting the side-netting.
Inter shot themselves in the foot to gift Wolfsburg the lead for the first time in the game. Carrizo’s dreadful pass to Juan Jesus was very short, so Vieirinha pounced to set up Kevin de Bruyne to score from 12 yards.
Naldo was booked and will therefore be suspended for the second leg at San Siro, but Carrizo was shaky again in goal when he seemed surprised by De Bruyne’s free kick round the wall. There had already been question marks over resting goalkeeper Samir Handanovic for Europe and this performance from Carrizo only added more.
Caligiuri almost made it 4-1, flashing his shot across the face of goal from a short corner, but Palacio and Icardi failed to make the most of a defensive error.
De Bruyne almost completed his hat-trick in stoppages, but the angled drive skimmed the far post.
Wolfsburg 3-1 Inter
Scorers: Palacio 6 (I), Naldo 28 (W), De Bruyne 63, 76 (W)
Wolfsburg: Benaglio; Vieirinha (Perisic 87), Knoche, Naldo, Rodriguez; Guilavogui, Luiz Gustavo; Caligiuri, De Bruyne, Schurrle; Dost (Bendtner 70)
Inter: Carrizo; D'Ambrosio, Ranocchia, Juan Jesus, Santon (Kuzmanovic 82); Medel, Guarin, Hernanes (Vidic 58); Shaqiri (Santon 82); Palacio, Icardi
Ref: Marciniak (POL)