At VfL Wolfsburg, all cup dreams could burst within five days. In the quarter-final second leg of the premier class against Chelsea, a 1: 2 must be turned.
Are you left empty-handed at the end of the season? The soccer players at VfL Wolfsburg don’t even know this feeling anymore. Since the triple season 2012/13, the “she-wolfs” have picked up at least one trophy every year. Now, however, within five days in the Champions League as in the DFB Cup, all dreams could be bursting.
“The anticipation for these two all-or-nothing games is great,” said sporting director Ralf Kellermann optimistically in the Wolfsburger Nachrichten. But for the quarter-final second leg against English champions FC Chelsea in Budapest, the German champions traveled with an unnecessary 1: 2 mortgage from the first comparison.
Good news before the showdown on Wednesday (2:00 p.m.): Alexandra Popp was also on the charter plane from Braunschweig to Hungary on Tuesday. After a positive Corona test in a family environment, Popp had isolated himself as a precaution, and the lead wolf was given the green light in good time, who set the motto: “All games are finals for us.”
FC Bayern is currently in a hurry
In the Bundesliga final spurt, VfL can no longer become champions on their own if they are five points behind Bayern Munich. And of all things, the sovereign front runner could destroy Wolfsburg’s dream of a seventh cup triumph in the semifinals on Easter Sunday (2:00 p.m.).
If the wolves manage to turn things around against Chelsea, there would probably be another duel with the Munich women in the premier class semi-finals that have already been drawn at the end of April. FC Bayern are going into their quarter-final second leg at Swedish record champions FC Rosengard on Thursday (7:00 p.m.) with a full 3-0 lead.
VfL drew courage from the first leg against Chelsea, which coach Stephan Lerch rated as the “best performance of the season”. National coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg still believes in a win against the Blues: “It will be mega exciting. I see the chance for Wolfsburg at at least 50 percent.” Especially since the converted penalty from Dominique Janssen could be extremely valuable – VfL was the nominal away team in the first leg.
Accordingly, the dangerous Chelsea offensive around ex-she-wolf Pernille Harder must now be kept in check with particular care. This task is not exactly easier for the two-time title holder (2013 and 2014) without the yellow-banned clearer Lena Oberdorf.
“We have to compensate for that”, emphasized Popp, who, as an experienced and strong all-rounder for “Obi”, could be withdrawn into the defensive midfield, “we definitely want to win this game and go through a round”.
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