VfL Wolfsburg Women brought 2024 to a close with a very satisfying performance, even though the result was not what they were looking for heading into the winter break. The She-Wolves went down to an agonising 1-0 defeat to Olympique Lyon at the Groupama Stadium, the French team living up to their billing as favourites by winning Group A and going through the group stage of the UEFA Women’s Champions League without dropping a point.
The She-Wolves also have plenty to be proud of, with their recent 6-1 win over AS Roma securing second place in the group and a spot in the Champions League quarter-finals. They also showed a considerable improvement compared with the 2-0 defeat that they suffered at home to Lyon earlier in the group stage.
The hosts had slightly the better of the exchanges in the first half but were unable to convert that dominance into goals, with the Green-and-Whites giving a good account of themselves. After the break, the game became more open and it took an individual piece of excellence shortly before the end from Danielle van de Donk (81’) to give Lyon the three points.
VfL Women will be heading back to Wolfsburg together on Wednesday, with an end-of-year gathering on the agenda that evening before they go off for the winter break.
Goal
1-0 (Van de Donk, 81’): Kadidiatou Diani outwits Marina Hegering down the right and fires a cross into the middle which is met by Van de Donk, who backheels the ball towards the goal. It is difficult to tell whether she is the one who gets the ball over the line or whether it goes in off Joelle Wedemeyer – either way, Van de Donk goes down as the scorer.
Reaction
Tommy Stroot: “Losing matches is always a bitter pill, but the way we played tonight means that we can all go away satisfied, myself included. We put a lot into the match, closed down the spaces well, but unfortunately we failed to make the most of our chances. Overall though, we were much better compared with when we faced them in the previous game.”
Line-ups and stats
Olympique Lyon: Endler – Carpenter, Gilles, Renard, Bacha (71‘ Svava) – Egurrola, Marozsan (60’ Däbritz), Diani, Horan (71‘ van de Donk), Chawinga (80‘ Becho) – Hegerberg (60‘ Le Sommer)
Subs: Belhadj (GK), Benkarth (Tor), Huerta, Sangaré, Sombath, Mendy
VfL Wolfsburg: Borbe – Wedemeyer, Hendrich, Hegering, Rabano – Jonsdottir, Huth (72‘ Minge), Kielland (82‘ Lattwein), Hagel (61‘ Brand) – Popp (82‘ Blomqvist), Endemann (72‘ Beerensteyn)
Subs: Frohms (GK), Wilms, Kalma, Arias
Goals: 1-0 van de Donk (81‘)
Yellow cards: -/ -
Referee: Alina Pesu (Romania)
Attendance: 3,700 at Groupama Stadium (Lyon)
