The cozy blankets in the club color green, which were supposed to keep you warm, served as a hiding place. Jule Brand pulled the textile completely over her head, as if she wanted to make herself invisible after this bitter 2-0 home defeat. The national player, like the entire VfL Wolfsburg team, was speechless.
“That hurts brutally,” admitted Alexandra Popp, the opinion leader of a team that rarely fails and seemed correspondingly at a loss. For the first time since 2012, Wolfsburg is missing from the group stage of the Champions League. The silence in the stadium, the horror among the fans and the monosyllables of the players made it clear: Here, a team used to success is experiencing something that no one had thought possible.
“Maybe it’s not enough right now.”
The 3-3 draw in the first leg at cheeky Paris FC obviously had a deep-seated warning effect. In front of 3,747 spectators, the Wolfsburg women appeared extremely perplexed and fearful. “Maybe it’s not enough right now,” said Popp, who was barely featured at all. Better to go back than forward – against the aggressively disruptive team from Paris, the VfL ensemble had lost all courage in building up the game.
In both qualifying games for the Champions League, the French knew how best to annoy the supposed favorites. Julie Dufour (31st minute) and Louise Fleury shortly before the end of the game scored the goals for the surprise winner, whose celebrations lasted until late on Wednesday evening.
The process of coming to terms with the Wolfsburg bankruptcy remains characterized by helplessness among everyone involved. After just 30 minutes, VfL head coach Tommy Stroot waved his hands around and asked the audience to improve the mood. But whatever Alexandra Popp, Lena Oberdorf or Svenja Huth tried – it failed or remained too harmless. “That wasn’t enough from us,” admitted Stroot. In the first half, his team was lucky that goalkeeper Lisa Schmitz saved a penalty in a remarkable way.
It was one of those days when everything really goes wrong. The otherwise very reliable Dominique Janssen missed a penalty kick after the break. VfL Wolfsburg’s minimalist rebellion was not enough against an opponent who defended themselves with every means possible. Paris FC have not previously been among the elite of European women’s football, but have now secured their place in the group stage in this Friday’s draw.
“This hurts now”
The same applies to FC Bayern Munich as German champions and Eintracht Frankfurt after surviving qualification against Sparta Prague. “It hurts now,” admitted Wolfsburg’s ambitious sports director Ralf Kellermann. His aim is to compete with the best in Europe. The VfL squad, which is full of national players, was put together with a corresponding amount of effort.
A difficult time awaits Kellermann as a strategist and Stroot as a driver. In everyday life in the Bundesliga and the DFB Cup, the team is almost always underchallenged. “You come to Wolfsburg,” said the very sad defense chief Janssen, “to win titles.” On Sunday (kick-off at 2 p.m. on DAZN and Magentasport), VfL, as Bundesliga leaders, welcomes TSG Hoffenheim as their stubborn pursuers.
Frank Heike and Marc Heinrich Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 6 Published/Updated: Recommendations: 1 Elisabeth Schmelzerl, Munich Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 3
Being able to get back into it after failure on the European stage is a big challenge. In the coming weeks, the Wolfsburg women will travel significantly less and be challenged without taking part in the Champions League. An impressive six-figure sum will be missing from the club’s budget. “Now we are running a different program,” announced head coach Stroot, who cannot afford another failure in the Bundesliga.
