Turbine Potsdam has achieved an important victory in the fight for a place in the Champions League. On Saturday, the third-placed team in the women’s Bundesliga won 2-1 (0-1) at pursuers TSG Hoffenheim.
Turbine fell behind after a controversial penalty, but Melissa Kössler and Dina Orschmann turned the game around against ten Hoffenheim women in the second half. With two games to go, Potsdam are now six points ahead of TSG.
The upcoming home game on May 7th against Eintracht Frankfurt, which is currently fifth with a game less than Potsdam, is likely to be decisive, but can move closer with a win against Leverkusen on Sunday. “Now we can set the Champions League as our goal. We have to be awake against Frankfurt in two weeks because Frankfurt will do everything. But we have a home game and it will be very difficult for Frankfurt,” said coach Sofian Chahed.
Despite the difficult 120 minutes in the cup at Bayer Leverkusen on Monday, the Potsdam team did not hide from the 750 spectators in the Dietmar Hopp Stadium. Maria Plattner, who came on for the injured Gina Chmielinski after half an hour, even had a great chance to put Turbine in the lead. But her shot from eleven meters went well over the Hoffenheim goal (39th minute).
In return, Potsdam unfortunately fell behind. Teninsoun Sissoko straddled the ball against Jule Brandt, causing the international to fall. “A clear wrong decision,” said Chahed. Chantal Hagel converted the disputed penalty against Anna Wellmann to make it 1-0 for TSG (41′). Shortly before the half-time whistle, Hoffenheim’s Fabienne Dongus met Malgorzata Mesjasz with a straight leg. For the TSG captain, the game ended with a red card (45+2).
Despite numerical superiority, it was not until the 65th minute before Kössler was able to poke the ball into the goal to equalize. Turbine then increased the pressure again and consequently scored the deserved winning goal through Orschmann.
