In the first-leg, the Lady-Wolves laid the groundwork to book a place in the UEFA Women’s Champions League final. In the semi-final first-leg, the VfL women claimed a 3-1 away victory over Chelsea LFC. With coach Stephan Lerch’s side having successfully earned a 4-0 win away to FF USV Jena in the re-scheduled Allianz Frauen-Bundesliga match on Wednesday, the Green-Whites now play their third game in seven days, as the host the Londoners on Sunday, April 29th (17:30 CET), for the semi-final return-leg in the AOK Stadion. At the pre-match press conference on Thursday, Lerch commented on…
… his expectations in the return-leg: I imagine Chelsea will push to get an early goal. Then they’d be back in the running and that would really motivate them. We need to prepare ourselves for that, but it also provides us with the opportunity to exploit the spaces and hit quickly on the break. What is ultimately vital is that we remain stable in defence – which we have done very well of late. We want to keep them out of our penalty-area, whilst putting the pressure on and remaining aggressive ourselves in the challenges. What we can’t afford to do is sit back and rely on the previous result.
… Wednesday’s 4-0 win in Jena: A massive compliment to my team for the way they went about the game in Jena from the very first minute. Jena’s 0-0 draw with FC Bayern Munich the week before will have given them a boost. We were prepared for them taking a deep, defensive approach. We wanted to maintain the tempo, which worked very well and the team implemented the game-plan perfectly. That’s one thing I consider particularly positive from this demanding week of action.
… the personnel situation: The players from the game in Jena all came through the match unscathed. Some were given a break and had the opportunity to enjoy a breather. In the personnel front, things look good for Sunday.
Women
