VfL Wolfsburg Women travelled to Madrid full of confidence on the back of a 3-1 win against Freiburg in the Bundesliga, but came away with a 2-0 defeat against Real Madrid in the UEFA Women’s Champions League.
Maria Mendez gave the home side the lead as early as the 19th minute, but shortly before the break Madrid’s Maelle Lakrar was shown a second yellow card for a clumsy foul and rightly given her marching orders (45’+1).
Despite being down to ten, the team from the Spanish capital were the more dangerous of the two sides, and it came as little surprise when Linda Caicedo doubled their lead in the 67th minute to make it 2-0. There was extra drama in time added on when Real substitute Iris Ashley was given a straight red for a dangerous tackle on VfL goalkeeper Stina Johannes (90’+3).
Stephan Lerch: “We couldn’t find the back of the net, and that was the main difference on the night. We weren’t able to be efficient or effective enough with the chances that we did create. Overall, it’s a tough defeat to come to terms with, because I think that we could have come away with something as opposed to heading home empty-handed.”
