As of: November 8th, 2025 4:15 p.m
The VfL Wolfsburg footballers have suffered a serious setback in the championship race. Coach Stephan Lerch’s team lost 2:3 (1:2) to Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday despite a long majority.
Mistakes in the work against the ball, as well as poor utilization of opportunities, led to the Lower Saxony team’s second defeat of the season, who played with one more woman from the 37th minute onwards after a red card against Nina Lührßen. At this point the guests were already leading 2-1 thanks to goals from Nicole Anyomi (26th) and Lura Freigang (28th). Former Wolfsburg player Rebecka Blomqvist made the decision in favor of the Hessians in the final phase (85th).
VfL, which took the lead through Kessya Bussy (7th) and reduced it to 2-3 through Alexandra Popp (89th), is now already six points behind league leaders FC Bayern Munich. The champions won their game on matchday ten against Union Berlin 4-0 on Friday evening.
Bussy gives VfL an early lead
In a game that was incredibly intense from the start on both sides, Wolfsburg were initially the team with the somewhat clearer line of play and better timing in the duels. And VfL was extremely efficient. The first chance to score made it 1-0: Janou Levels passed perfectly deep to Bussy, who lofted the ball over the rushing keeper Lina Altenburg.
Popp could have followed the Frenchwoman’s third goal of the season with her sixth goal in this series ten minutes later. But the 34-year-old VfL icon’s shot was blocked at the last moment by the Frankfurt team for a corner.
Wolfsburg’s mistakes enable Frankfurt’s double strike
Nicole Anyomi brought Frankfurt back into the game with the score 1-1.
The “Wolfs” had the action under control until the middle of the first period. Although the guests tried hard, they lacked the necessary precision and conviction in their forward movement. Then VfL brought the Hessians back into the game. Strictly speaking, Lena Lattwein was primarily responsible for the surprising equalizer at the time. The midfielder lost sight of Anyomi during a free kick from Lührßen, so that the attacker was able to score 1-1 with a left-footed shot.
Exactly two minutes and 24 seconds later, the Frankfurt women were in each other’s arms again. And once again the “Wolfs” helped a lot: this time keeper Stina Johannes didn’t take decisive action after a cross from Hayley Raso. The play equipment slipped past the long post, where Freigang only had to hold his foot.
Wolfsburg’s Janina Minge missed the 2-2 with a penalty.
Two inattentions caused the Lerch team to fall behind. But the “She-Wolves” could console themselves with the fact that their opponent wasn’t free from mistakes either. So left-back Lührßen did what field players shouldn’t do in football: she reached out to help. And because the Bremen native also did this on the goal line to fend off a shot from Caitlin Dijkstra, the 25-year-old saw the red card.
Janina Minge then grabbed the ball to convert the hand penalty. However, the defensive specialist’s low shot was not precise enough to overcome Altenburg. The Frankfurt goalkeeper scratched the ball off the line (39th).
VfL pushes into the majority, Frankfurt counters
Lerch broke up his double six after the break by bringing offensive player Smilla Vallotto into play for Minge. With this, the VfL coach hoped for even more pressure in the forward movement, but also took a bit of a risk against the fast Frankfurt strikers.
And that’s how it happened: Wolfsburg pushed for the equalizer with vehemence, while Eintracht countered dangerously at times. Freigang had the chance to make it 3-1, but was denied by Johannes (50′). On the other side, Popp missed the equalizer twice within a few seconds five minutes later.
Blomqvist makes the decision
As the game continued, the dominance of the Lower Saxony team increased. However, the Lerch team found it incredibly difficult to create clear chances against the very compact Frankfurt team. And if VfL did find a gap in the tight defensive network of the “Eagle Bearers”, either Altenburg or the post (Popp/81.) stood in the way of the equalizer.
The tirelessly running “She-Wolves” definitely deserved a draw. But another mistake ultimately led to the final knockout: After a misunderstanding between Dijkstra and Joelle Wedemeyer, Blomqvist had free rein and scored with a well-considered low shot to make it 3-1. The fact that Popp was able to shorten the score in what felt like her 100th attempt this afternoon shortly before the end of the day was just a cosmetic result.
