The 56-year-old opted to make two changes to his starting eleven against Eintracht compared with the 4-0 defeat against Wolfsburg: Ivana Rudelic started in place of Sandra Jessen with the captain Jessica Wich making her return to the team. Kristin Kögel made way and started on the subs’ bench. The hosts made the better start in front of 360 spectators at the Brentanobad Stadium: Germany international Laura Freigang opened the scoring on four minutes. But the Werkself Women were quick to respond: Striker Milena Nikolic levelled the scores after good work by Ivana Rudelic (9’). “After that, we had two clear-cut chances and we could have been in front at half-time,” Feifel said in summing up the first 45.
After the restart there was a change in terms of taking chances: 62 minutes into the game, the Bayer 04 Women quickly mounted a counter-attack after winning possession, Dora Zeller passed to Rudelic who, in a repeat of the first Leverkusen goal, set up Nikolic in the penalty area – 2-1 and the tables were turned. The visitors held on to the narrow lead until just before the end of the game.
The lead was lost at the beginning of added time: Like Nikolic, Eintracht striker Freigang scored for the second time on the night when she converted a penalty (90’). According to Feifel, the Werkself Women “could have conceded the equaliser earlier on.” His team then had a double chance to regain the lead after the leveller at 2-2. But there were no more goals.
“Of course, initially it’s frustrating conceding such a late goal and going home with only one point. Nevertheless, I’m completely satisfied with the performance over 93 minutes,” declared Feifel who said his players produced a “great team performance.”
Match stats:
Eintracht Frankfurt: Frohms – Hechler (Küver 87’), Kleinherne, Störzel, Aschauer – Mauron (Prasnikar 46’), Pawollek – Panfil (Nüsken 41’), Freigang, Dunst – Reuteler
Bayer 04: Klink – Kerschowski, Turanyi, Friedrich (Kögel 61’), Marti – Csiszar, Wirtz, Wich (Jessen 57’), Zeller – Rudelic, Nikolic
Goals: 1-0 Freigang (4’), 1-1 Nikolic (9’), 1-2 Nikolic (62’), 2-2 Freigang (90’ pen.)
Booked: Pawollek / Wirtz, Rudelic
Referee: Katrin Rafalski (Baunatal)
Attendance: 360
Rüdiger Vollborn has been at the club for 40 years, he holds the record number of Bundesliga appearances for the club (401) and is the only Bayer 04 player to have won both the UEFA Cup (1988) and the DFB Pokal (1993). And the Berliner stayed with the Werkself after ending his impressive playing career working as a goalkeeping coach for the following nine years. Vollborn now works under the Bayer Cross as a fan liaison officer and club archivist. Since February 2021, the personal Black and Red lexicon takes Werkself fans under the heading of 'Rudi recounts...' on a brief trip through the history of Bayer 04 every month…
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