Fourth place after home win against Potsdam

It was a hard-fought match from the opening minutes with both teams giving little away. The visitors had the first chance on 12 minutes when Malgorzata Mesjasz hit the bar. The Werkself Women allowed Potsdam to have the ball and focused on fast transition after winning possession.

The plan paid off on 23 minutes. After Kristin Kögel won possession, Nikolic picked out winter signing Mina Tanaka, who made her debut appearance for the Bayer 04 on Friday night. The Japanese won a block tackle with a Potsdam player and then found Henrietta Csiszar who opened the scoring with a delicate and skilful lob. Bayer 04 then remained solid in defence and just before half-time missed out on the chances to increase the lead with efforts from Tanaka (41') and Csiszar (42').

Nikolic doubles the lead – brief fright

The second half continued in a similar vein – and the Bayer 04 Women doubled the lead on the hour mark. Zeller raced down the left flank and crossed for Nikolic to score with a tap-in. Just one minute later, Zeller hit the upright from a tight angle. The team under head coach Achim Feifel continued to press and were rewarded on 67 minutes with the third strike to make it 3-0. Csiszar dribbled from the right into the middle and passed to Nikolic who left the Potsdam keeper with no chance with an accurate shot into the bottom left corner.

It looked like the win was sealed but Turbine Potsdam refused to give up. Chmielinski scored with a deflected shot from a corner to make it 3-1 on 70 minutes. Mesjasz scored with a header five minutes later and Potsdam sensed the chance of pulling level. The Black and Reds refused to give way and stuck to their task. In a counter-attack, substitute Wieder saw Nikolic in the opposition box and she only had to hold out her foot to convert the cross to make it 4-2 (80'). That was the climax to an intense match with Bayer 04 deservedly picking up three points with well-organised defending and quick transition against one of the top teams in the league.

Werkself Women go fourth for first time

The head coach said after the game: "My players really gave their all today. It was a very tough match with a good tempo and the way we scored the goals was excellent. We’re totally happy about the win and fourth place in the table – hats off to the team." Feifel added: "A lot of things went right today. We defended very well and were compact. It was a brilliant collective team performance with a great fighting spirit."

And the match was also a pleasure for Thomas Eichin, head of the Performance Centre: "Today was an advert for women's football. A really intense match. It was good that it was on TV."

Thanks to the win against Potsdam, Bayer 04 have overtaken Turbine, although they have played one game less, and the Werkself Women are now in fourth place on 23 points. The team have never before been in a similar position in the first division. "We want to stay hungry and ambitious and get the maximum out of this season," said Feifel whose team are away to the reigning champions VfL Wolfsburg next time out on Sunday, 14 March (kick-off: 14.00 CET).

Match stats:

Bayer 04: Klink – Kerschowski, Turanyi, Vinken, Marti – Csiszár, Matysik (Zdebel 64’), Kögel, Zeller (Wieder 77’) – Tanaka (Rackow 85’), Nikolic
FFC Turbine Potsdam: Lind – Elsig, Mesjasz, K. Holmgaard, S. Holmgaard, Barth (Chmielinski 61’), Kössler (Gerhardt 55’), Höbinger (Graf 71’), Weidauer, Ehegötz, Cerci
Goals: 1-0 Csiszár (23’), 2-0 Nikolic (61’), 3-0 Nikolic (68’), 3-1 Chmielinski (71’), 3-2 Mesjasz (77’), 4-2 Nikolic (82’)
Booked: - / Mesjasz
Referee: Vanessa Arlt (Münster)