The Wolfsburg footballers can continue to dream of their third Champions League victory. A 1-1 (1-1) draw against Paris St. Germain in the second leg of the quarter-finals on Thursday was enough for VfL to advance to the semi-finals.
There, the VfL women, who won the first leg in Paris 1-0, meet Arsenal London. The English women had turned out to be a size too big for FC Bayern Munich. For the second semi-final, FC Barcelona is still waiting for its opponent – either Olympique Lyon or Chelsea.
VfL coach Stroot: “We are very proud”
“We worked our way into the game, prevailed and are very proud of it,” said VfL trainer Tommy Stroot to NDR. “Now Arsenal is waiting.” Wolfsburg’s goalscorer Alexandra Popp can hardly wait: “This is the last step towards the final and we want to win it.”
The preliminary round will be played on 22./23. and 29./30. April. The Champions League final will take place in Eindhoven on June 3rd. The “wolves” have won the title in the most important European club competition twice so far, in 2013 and 2014.
The Wolfsburg women were miles away from that in the first 20 minutes against Paris. Only the guests played in front of 14,367 spectators in the VfL stadium. Kadidiatou Diani consequently scored to put the French team 1-0 up (12′), but the video assistant helped VfL. The Parisian had previously been just offside.
Popp makes short work of it and scores
And the “wolves”? Alexandra Popp had them. First shot, first goal, it was said in the 20th minute and the course of the game was turned upside down. The Wolfsburg striker steered the ball past PSG keeper Sarah Bouhaddi into the goal with a kind of “shot tackle” – 1-0 for Wolfsburg.
Paris was taken aback, but came back. Diani equalized after half an hour with a header. Bitter for the French runners-up: The exceptional striker had to leave the field at half-time with a shoulder injury.
Paris without Diani too harmless
Without Diani, PSG didn’t develop the same penetrating power in the second half as in the first half. At the same time, the VfL women improved, showed their playful strength and should have decided the duel early. But Popp hit the post from very close range (53′) and Jill Roord failed to hit Bouhaddi (59′).
However, Paris remained dangerous through counterattacks, but with a lot of passion and a bit of luck, the women from Wolfsburg brought the result over time.
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NDR 2 Sports | 03/30/2023 | 11:03 p.m
