In a spectacular match, the women of VfL Wolfsburg drew 3-3 at last year’s Champions League finalists FC Chelsea to open the group stage.
Compared to the 2-2 draw against Freiburg – the first point loss in the current Bundesliga season – VfL coach Tommy Stroot made changes in three positions: Instead of Svava, Blomqvist and Smits, Hendrich, Rauch and Wolter started. For Chelsea, the two German internationals Berger and Leupolz as well as the former Wolfsburg star player Harder were part of the team.
Kerr opens – Waßmuth and Roord ice cold
Chelsea started with enormous pressure and initially cut VfL off in their own half. The almost logical consequence was the early lead, which Kerr, sent on by Ji, scored with a beautiful lob over Schult (12th). But shortly afterwards, in the middle of the home side’s continued pressing phase, the equaliser came out of nowhere. Eriksson and Berger did not agree on the edge of the penalty area and the goalkeeper missed the ball. Waßmuth obliged with a strike into the orphaned goal (18th).
And that was not enough of Wolfsburg’s effectiveness in the first half: Berger played in Leupolz, who was under pressure from Oberdorf, on a clearance in front of the penalty area in the 34th minute. The cue thus came to Roord, who immediately finished and scored for the German team to make it 2-1 at the break.
Waßmuth profits – Harder equalises late on
After the break, the Wolves promptly took advantage of the third serious Chelsea defensive error. A back pass from Carter to Berger was completely unsuccessful, so that Waßmuth got to the ball from an acute angle and again punished the mistake with an ice-cold shot into the open goal (48th). But Chelsea struck back quickly: England scored from close range after a corner kick (51).
After that, Wolfsburg controlled the game much better than before the break, probably because England were getting a bit tired. But in injury time, after a mistake by Janssen in her own penalty area, Harder managed to score the 3:3 final result (90.+2).
Wolfsburg’s next league match is against 1. FC Köln on Sunday (4 p.m.) before hosting Servette Geneva in the Champions League on Wednesday next week (6.45 p.m.).
