Champions League playoffs
Victory at Juve: DFB duo shoots Wolfsburg into the quarter-finals
February 19, 2026 – 8:50 p.mReading time: 2 minutes
Despite the absence of ex-DFB captain Alexandra Popp, VfL delivered a mature performance at the top Italian club. The reward: the round of the best eight. A tough challenge is waiting there.
The VfL Wolfsburg footballers have reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League. Even without top performer Alexandra Popp, coach Stephan Lerch’s team won 2-0 (1-0) at Juventus Turin and booked their ticket to the round of the top eight after the 2-2 draw in the play-off first leg.
Vivien Endemann (18th) and Cora Zicai (90th + 6) scored for the Wolves, who are now waiting for Olympique Lyon in the quarter-finals. The success gave VfL self-confidence for the top Bundesliga game on Sunday (4.20 p.m./ZDF, DAZN and MagentaSport) against leaders Bayern Munich. In contrast to Wolfsburg in the premier class, the German double winner had avoided the detour via the play-offs.
“It will definitely be an extremely difficult game, but we will be on fire from the start and of course we want to win,” national player Janina Minge emphasized before the game. The Wolfsburg women had to do without Popp and Lena Lattwein, both of whom were missing due to an infection.
After a quiet initial phase, the Wolves in Turin soon pushed the door to the quarter-finals wide open: VfL quickly combined to move forward via Endemann, and the national player finally pushed in from close range after a pass from Svenja Huth. The guests then let the ball run through their own ranks and largely kept the Italian offensive in check.
After the break, Juventus dominated the game. Things got tricky several times for Wolfsburg, but VfL withstood the pressure from the Italians in a hectic shooting phase. Zicai, who was part of the German European Championship squad last summer, put the lid on things with a dream goal under the crossbar.