Women

Eight She-Wolves win Olympic bronze

We take a look back on how the VfL Women fared en route to Germany winning third place.

Merle Frohms, Kathrin Hendrich, Marina Hegering, Sarai Linder, Janina Minge, Jule Brand, Alexandra Popp and Vivien Endemann will all return to Wolfsburg with a bronze medal around their necks after finishing third at the Olympic Games in France.

Germany edged a tight encounter 1-0 against world champions Spain in Lyon on Friday afternoon, sparking celebrations from the players after the final whistle. The players will receive their medals on Saturday in Paris after the final between Brazil and the USA.

Six Green-and-Whites on the pitch

“It doesn’t get more dramatic than that,” said Popp after Friday’s game, in which there were two decisive penalties. The first of those was scored by Giulia Gwinn in the 65th minute to put Germany ahead, before Ann-Katrin Berger produced a brilliant save to deny Spain from the spot in the seventh minute of stoppage time, just seconds before the final whistle.

That sparked wild celebrations as Germany delighted in winning a medal. In Hendrich, Hegering, Linder, Minge, Brand and Popp, there were six VfL players on the pitch from start to finish.

Debutants aplenty

For six of the eight She-Wolves, the tournament was their first experience of the Olympic Games. While Hendrich was at the 2016 edition in Rio de Janeiro, it was only as an unused substitute, leaving VfL captain Popp as the only player to have previously enjoyed Olympic minutes, having helped Germany to gold eight years ago.