Schmidt departs as Wolfsburg face relegation fight

Former Wolfsburg coach Martin Schmidt

Martin Schmidt has stepped down as head coach of relegation-threatened Bundesliga side Wolfsburg.

An injury-time penalty from Robert Lewandowski gave Bayern Munich a 2-1 win over Wolfsburg on Saturday in what proved to be Schmidt's final game in charge.

Despite encouraging signs in that battling performance, the 2014-15 runners-up have only four league wins to their name all season.

They are now looking for their third head coach of the campaign, with former Mainz boss Schmidt having stepped in on the back of Andries Jonker's sacking last September.

Sad news today folks: Martin Schmidt has stepped down as VfL head coach pic.twitter.com/tjBIHau9IG

— VfL Wolfsburg US (@VfLWolfsburg_US) February 19, 2018

Wolfsburg are 14th in the table, a point above third-bottom Mainz, who they face in their next Bundesliga fixture on Friday.

The 2016-17 season also saw the club use three different head coaches, with Jonker succeeding Dieter Hecking and Valerien Ismael and needing a relegation play-off victory over Eintracht Braunschweig to preserve top-flight status.