Women’s Bundesliga
Drama in Wolfsburg: DFB captain Minge is suddenly a goalkeeper
March 29, 2026 – 6:40 p.mReading time: 2 minutes
VfL Wolfsburg fought for a draw against Union Berlin when they were outnumbered. Janina Minge is required in an unusual role.
Despite being outnumbered, VfL Wolfsburg only managed a 3-3 draw against 1. FC Union Berlin. The focus is on Janina Minge: The captain of the German national team initially scored the equalizer with a dream goal (45th minute), but was needed as goalkeeper in the last 15 minutes of the game.
What had happened? In the 87th minute, VfL goalkeeper Stina Johannes rushed out of the goal, but
Union attacker Nele Bauereisen was on the ball in front of her. The German national goalkeeper ran over the attacker and then saw a red card for her emergency stop.
Since the hosts had already made five changes, midfielder Minge went straight into the goal. However, their skills between the posts were not tested during the final minutes of the game and the ten minutes of stoppage time. “We’ve never talked about a situation like this, but I’m not afraid of the ball,” she said afterwards, explaining why she had put on the goalkeeper gloves.
Minge’s main task was to get the ball into the opponent’s half, as VfL was pushing for a draw against Berlin despite being outnumbered. Judit Pujols achieved this in the 95th minute. “I’m very proud that we still managed to make it 3-3,” praised Minge.
Previously, the VfL women had fallen behind twice due to two hair-raising individual mistakes. First, Union’s Hannah Eurlings took advantage of a loss of the ball in the Wolfsburg penalty area (43′), then Camilla Küver scored an own goal with an inaccurate back pass to Johannes. In the 84th minute she ironed out this mistake with a 2-3 goal on the right side. Previously, Jenny Hipp scored Berlin’s third goal after a corner (78′).
The draw is also something like the preliminary decision in the championship fight. With five games remaining, the Wolves are 13 points behind league leaders Bayern Munich. Lower Saxony’s focus is now on the second leg of the Champions League quarter-finals at Olympique Lyon on Thursday (from 9 p.m. in the live ticker on t-online). The German record cup winner won the first leg 1-0.
