‘No time for great disappointment’ as Bayer 04 Women head to Hoffenheim

The first task, though, is to put Wednesday’s 1-0 defeat to Werder Bremen behind them. “We’re pleased we can try and make up for that setback within a few days. There’s no time for great disappointment and there’s also no reason for any great frustration,” head coach Roberto Pätzold stated. Instead, he’s encouraged by performances in recent weeks: “Even though we’ve not won the last three games, we weren’t bad in any of them. But we still need to step things up a notch in all areas to create that luck we need in games again.”

Elimination to Werder followed a 3-2 loss at Eintracht Frankfurt and a 1-1 draw at home to Essen. Hoffenheim caused a huge upset during the week as they inflicted a first cup defeat on Wolfsburg for 11 years, while they’ve also won two of their three league games since the winter break. “Given the results since the break, we’re not going there as favourites. Maybe this role will suit us,” said Pätzold, before talking up the opposition: “Hoffenheim have generally been really good since the restart. Their individual quality is high in any case, but there’s also good confidence. But we have means of our own to combat that.”

The coach has called for his team to be more clinical in front of goal if they’re to get back to winning ways. “We had far more chances against both Essen and Bremen than in the first half of the season. We didn’t make enough of them,” the 45-year-old said. “Now we’re performing even better in lots of areas, creating more chances, but we’re not being clinical. We need to start rewarding ourselves more again.”

Should Bayer 04 earn their second win of the second half of the season at the Dietmar-Hopp-Stadion, they will have equalled their points tally from last season (33) with eight games still to go. That is also the club’s record total from 2020/21. “If we stay true to ourselves and keep putting in a lot of effort, we’ll win games again. Also aside from the results, we’re having a great season and deserve to be where we are,” said Pätzold. “At no point have we let the pressure of expectations drive us crazy and have realistically evaluated our situation. Setbacks after good spells are part of things. It’s exciting to see how the players deal with it.”

No changes in squad

Pätzold takes his team to Sinsheim with the same squad as was available during the week. That means Katharina Piljic (ankle), Loreen Bender (tonsil operation), Vanessa Haim (back) and Sofia Cava Marin (cruciate ligament) are all still out.