It all comes down to this: VfL Women are at home to Bayer 04 Leverkusen on Sunday (kick-off: 14:00 CEST) for the 22nd and final matchday of the 2024/25 Google Pixel Women’s Bundesliga season. The She-Wolves need all three points to be sure of second spot in the table and with it, direct qualification for the UEFA Women’s Champions League.
Whatever the outcome of the match, emotions will already be running high before kick-off, as once the warm-up is over, the She-Wolves will be saying goodbye to 10 players who will be leaving the club in the summer. Around 4,000 fans are expected at the AOK Stadion.
VfL coach Sabrina Eckhoff spoke ahead of the match about…
…team news: “There are two players that we’re going to have to do without. Lineth Beerensteyn is out with a muscular injury and Alexandra Popp has an infection. Svenja Huth is training apart from the group today and we’ll see how she progresses between now and the weekend. Marina Hegering and Rebecka Blomqvist are still only doing reduced training but it’s looking on track for them to be available for the match.”
…the mood within the team: “Right from the start of the week’s training, I could sense that anticipation levels were at their highest. The players have realised that this is the last week that they’ll be spending together as a group, and as such, they’re all really focused and concentrated. The last match of the season is always a special one. The players want to put in one more good performance together and on behalf of one another. And apart from that, this year it’s in our own hands to achieve our goal of finishing second.”
…their opponents: “For Leverkusen, this is the first match where they already know what position they’ll finish in, so I can’t really be sure how that will affect them as a team. What I do know is that they’re a side who press aggressively and like to get the ball forward quickly. We expect those two things from them regardless of the fact that they’re fourth in the league. What we need to do is have more control and more possession than we did when we faced them earlier in the season. So when we’re under pressure when we’re on the ball, we need to be constantly focused on finding the free spaces.”
