The FLYERALARM Women’s Bundesliga leaders were held by Dutch champions Twente on Friday in their first warm-up game of the year in the Portuguese Algarve. Incessant rain and a heavy pitch made for difficult conditions, but Pernille Harder opened the scoring around the half-hour mark, before Fenna Kalma equalised in the second half.
Head coach Stephan Lerch’s charges now have another week of intensive preparation on Portugal’s south coast before facing domestic rivals 1. FFC Frankfurt in another friendly on Friday 31 January (kick-off 17:00 CET).
“Incredible commitment”
Stephan Lerch: “The pitch was very soggy on the wings in the first half and it was difficult to play on. Despite that, we still learned some valuable lessons in the first 45 minutes; we played well and created a few chances. We didn’t allow the opposition a sniff at goal in the first 30 minutes in particular and we defended very well against the ball. You can’t really analyse the second half properly because the rain became increasingly heavy and there were a lot of puddles on the pitch. It became more of a fight involving luck and fluke. Overall the team showed incredible commitment and they really wanted to win the game, so I can only tip my hat to that.”
VfL Wolfsburg: Abt – Wedemeyer (64‘ Rauch), Goeßling, Doorsoun – Dickenmann (46‘ Rolfö), Popp (64‘ Neto), Engen (77‘ Minde), Maritz (46‘ Wolter) – Huth (46‘ Jakabfi), Harder (77‘ Janogy), Pajor (64‘ Blässe)
FC Twente: Van Domselaar – van der Wal, Giesen, Ypema, Wilms – Folkertsma (32‘ Darnoud/67‘ Vanmechelen), van der Goorbergh – van Weerden (87‘ Hilhorst), Stolze, B. Jansen (77‘ Kalma) – R. Jansen
Goals: 1-0 Harder (28‘), 1-1 Kalma (78‘)
