The 2021/22 season is barely three weeks old, but VfL Wolfsburg Women’s fourth competitive match of the new campaign already has the air of a final. After winning the first leg 3-2 last week, the She-Wolves go into their second qualifying round second leg at FC Girondins Bordeaux on Wednesday (kick-off 19:00 CEST) looking to book their ticket for the UEFA Women’s Champions League group stage.
At the virtual press conference ahead of the game, VfL head coach Tommy Stroot answered the media’s questions on…
…personnel: “Pauline Bremer isn’t in the squad. At Bremen, the way the game went didn’t give us an opportunity to bring her on. We’ll now bring her back up to speed through the reserves. Compared to the first leg, we’ve included Almuth Schult in the squad. We’re allowed to select three goalkeepers in the Champions League, after all.”
…lessons from the first leg: “If we win 3-2 again and end up in the group stage, we’ll have done a lot right. Reaching the group stage is the most important thing.”
…preparations for Bordeaux: “We’d already studied Bordeaux thoroughly before the first leg. Now we also have information on how our game looked against them. If you look at the first leg, it’s clear we still have room for improvement in all areas. If we can call on that potential, we’ll leave the pitch as winners.”
…the starting line-up: “There will obviously be changes compared to the game in Bremen, when we were without Svenja Huth and Joelle Wedemeyer. You always have to bear in mind that you can make up to five substitutions, so we have the opportunity to go the distance.”
