Women miss out on DFB Cup final

Reaching the final in Cologne on 27 May would have been the biggest success in the club's history. Instead, SC Sand will face either SC Freiburg or VfL Wolfsburg at the RheinEnergie Stadium.

"We made too many mistakes in possession. Sand were clearly more efficient and were ruthless in punishing our mistakes. We've now got to concentrate completely on the league and try to stop making these mistakes," said Verena Hagedorn on her first outing as head coach of the Bayer 04 Women's team."

The Werkself women went a goal behind after ten minutes when Sand took advantage of Leverkusen losing possession and unleashed a shot from distance. The SC striker Nina Burger managed to tap in the rebound. Just six minutes later, Burger was able to head home unchallenged from a corner to make it 2-0. The third goal also came from a long-range effort that Anna Klink was able to parry only for Jovana Damnjanovic to react quickest to make the score 3-0 at half-time.

Leverkusen did produce some good moves in the first 45 minutes but were unable to create many clear-cut chances in front of the Sand goal. The best chance was missed by Lisa Schwab on 40 minutes when her left-foot shot flew just wide of the right-hand post.

The Werkself Women made a very determined start to the second half and came very close to scoring but were unable to get the ball in the back of the net. The next goal came once again at the Leverkusen end. From another corner, header crashed against the bar and Burger was on hand again on 61 minutes to put Sand four goals up.

The Black and Reds had absolutely nothing to lose now and they endeavoured to throw everything at the Sand goal but SCS sat deep and were able to frustrate the Bayer 04 attacks. In the closing stages a goal or two could have come at either end but Petzelberger headed wide on 89 minutes and goalkeeper Klink came out on top in several one-on-ones.

Bayer 04 Women now have to focus on the league and start getting results as soon as possible to move up from the current 11th position. They are just two points away from safety. However, USV Jena face bottom-of-the-table Borussia Mönchengladbach on Sunday. Bayer 04 are away to TSG Hoffenheim. The kick-off on 23 April is at 14.00 CET.

Match stats

Bayer 04: Klink – Kempe, Schrum (Dunst 46’), Krahn, Rinast - T. Knaak, Petzelberger, Barth, Wich (Rackow 81’) - Schwab, Ciszár (Dieckmann 61’)

SC Sand: Schlüter – Sandvej, Caldwell, van Bonn, Savin - Santos (Feiersinger 46’), Igwe, Meyer (Vetterlein 68’), Aschauer - Burger, Damnjanovic (Nikolic 75’)

Goals: 0-1 Burger (10’), 0-2 Burger (16’), 0-3 Damnjanovic (35’), 0-4 Burger (61’)

Booked: Petzelberger - Aschauer

Referee: Karoline Wacker

Attendance: 1,091