4-0 in Liège: Women win penultimate friendly

"We worked our way into the game over the course of the match. The commitment, the attacking play and many elements of the game were very good. We created a lot of chances in attack but we can't be completely happy with our conversion rate," said Pätzold: "We were very focused in defence and, as a result, scarcely conceded a chance on our goal. We want to give some of our players 90 minutes in the coming week so today was the last chance for everybody to show what they can do with a lot of playing time. It's always good for a coach if team selection is difficult."

Compared with the 3-2 win at Anderlecht with three 35 minute periods, the coach made four changes to his starting line-up. In defence, Sofia Cava Marin and Emilie Bragstad replaced Synne Skinnes Hansen and Selina Ostermeier with Kristin Kögel and Delice Boboy starting up front in place of Karolina Lea Vilhjalmsdottir and Cornelia Kramer.

Levels scores direct from a corner

The Werkself, playing in all white, initially found it difficult against aggressive hosts. Leverkusen took somewhat of a surprise the lead with a wonder goal: Levels hit a corner from the left high and with spin in the direction the goal and the ball landed up in the corner of the net (13'). The second goal came just before the first break with a move involving a number of players. Via Levels and Kögel the ball ended up with Bender who doubled the lead at 2-0 with an accurate curler into the right corner of the net (27').

After the restart, a low shot from Boboy just missed the target (34') with the Bayer 04 Women now the livelier team. Three minutes later, Ostermeier powered a header goalwards a from Kögel corner but the Liège keeper Laura Droz was in the right spot to make the save. Play eased off after that with the visitors still maintaining control of the game.

Friederike Repohl showed what she could do for the first time after 15 minutes in the third quarter. The keeper pulled off a great reflex save to keep out a free kick. At the other end, Kramer was denied when the opposition keeper saved a low shot (83').

The Werkself made it 3-0 after the final break with the best move of the afternoon. A pass from Ostermeier found Skinnes Hansen and the Norwegian raced forward to cross to Jorde for the 20-year-old to fire the ball into the net (93'). The fourth goal for the visitors came down the left side. Julia Mickenhagen hit a low pass to Merino Gonzalez and she scored with a tap-in (100'). The Leverkusen Women gave little away right to the end of the game.

final friendly against Sittard

The last friendly of the preseason is on Friday 23 August (kick-off: 14.00 CEST) at the Kurtekotten performance Centre. In another game with four periods of 30 minutes, the Pätzold team entertain Fortuna Sittard from the Vrouwen Eredivisie in the Netherlands. The Werkself start the new Bundesliga campaign a week later on 31 August (kick-off: 14.00 CEST) with an away game at SC Freiburg. That will be followed by the second round tie in the DFB Pokal with the opposition drawn on Tuesday night. The complete summer timetable for the Women can be found HERE.

Match stats:

Standard Liège starting XI: Droz - Humartus, O'Riordan, Miller, Jorde, Brackman, Fon, Blave, Van Belle, Toloba, Wajnblum

Bayer 04: Repohl (Moll 76') - Cava Marin (Daedelow 45’/Jorde 76'), Bragstad (Ostermeier 31'), Turanyi (Bragstad 76'), Levels (Mickenhagen 61’) - Zdebel (Skinnes Hansen 61’), Vidal (Piljic 61’) - Bender (Haim 31'/ Vilhjalmsdottir 61’/Bender 105’), Kögel (Shen 61’) - Boboy (Kramer 61’), Kehrer (Merino Gonzalez 61’)

Goals: 0-1 Levels (13’), 0-2 Bender (27’), 0-3 Jorde (93’), 0-4 Merino Gonzalez (100’)

Attendance: 80