The soccer players of SKN St. Pölten said goodbye to the Champions League on Thursday with a 2:8 home defeat against VfL Wolfsburg. The Austrian series champion fell behind against the German champion early on and was quickly lost. The women from Wolfsburg advanced to the quarter-finals as group winners in Pool B. In the parallel game, AS Roma won 3-0 at Slavia Prague.
The Lower Austrians, who finished their debut in the group stage in third place, wanted to say goodbye to the premier class, but failed. Less than five minutes later, coach Liese Brancao’s team was behind.
Lena Lattwein took the measure from 17 meters and curled the ball into the cross corner of the St. Pölten goal. Even before the break, the guests, who had to do without their ill coach Tommy Stroot, converted their superiority into more goals. First, Marina Hegering increased the lead to 2-0 (38′) with a solid pound from a good 25 yards out, only two minutes later VfL captain Svenja Huth scored after a crossbar hit by Ewa Pajor to make it 3-0 at the break.
After the break, Maria Mikolajova missed the great chance for the hosts’ first goal, the 23-year-old Slovak shot wide of the goal after a great solo run (51st). But the bell rang on the other side: Pajor increased to 4:0 after SKN goalkeeper Carina Schlueter failed to grab a cross well enough (56th). St. Pölten then fell apart, Tabea Waßmuth (67th) and Pia-Sophie Wolter scored a brace (74th, 76th) to make it 7-0.
But the goal festival continued: First Mateja Zver scored the consolation goal (78th), before Pauline Bremer scored Wolfsburg’s eighth goal (85th). The Brancao team had the last word, Rita Schumacher (85th) scored her third Champions League goal. 22 goals conceded in six games, twelve of them against Wolfsburg alone, show where the Lower Austrians are lagging behind the big clubs in Europe. The group ended St. Pölten in third place with four points, ahead of Slavia (two).
Wenninger on the bench with Roma
The Roma, with the ÖFB team captain Carina Wenninger on the bench on Thursday, rose to the quarter-finals of the European premier class as the second-placed team.
