Women lose opening friendly against Gütersloh

"We would have liked to have created more chances and achieved a better result," said Pätzold. "Our opponents made it very difficult for us with a deep back five and showed us what we still need to improve. That made it a very valuable test for us. In terms of running and physicality, the performance was good for this stage of preseason. We worked very well without the ball and had a lot of pressing actions. Now it's about converting these into goalscoring opportunities." With regard to the many young players, he added: "We've gathered some good impressions in the coaching team. For many of them, these first training days at this level were very intensive."

In the first friendly of a two-stage preseason, the new coach gave minutes to all 20 outfield players from the current training group. Some of the squad were unavailable due to injury, recent international travels or a friendly with the German U19 team. Consequently, eight youngsters from the academy supplemented the squad: Sena Fukumoto, Ida Daedelow, Nina Hainke, Franziska Theus, Katharina König, Chiara Kaiser and Joana Merten were given the chance to impress, but goalkeeper Louisa Remien did not feature. Pätzold made substitutions throughout to get an impression of his new team. New signing from Køge in Denmark, Cornelia Kramer, will link up with the team on 1 July.

FIRST CHANCE THROUGH Piljić

Summer arrival Katharina Piljić registered the first shot of the game after two minutes, the ball hitting the side-netting. The hosts remained busy in attack but struggled to create genuine opportunities against their deep-lying opponents. Even though Gütersloh rarely got out of their own half, the visitors took the lead on the stroke of half-time through Maren Tellenbröker. 

Pätzold made nine changes at the break and again it was Bayer 04 who had the early attacking moments in the second period. Merten was denied by the FSV goalkeeper in the 48th minute, before König had a go from distance shortly after. After that, it was a similar story to the first half: Gütersloh stayed deep, Leverkusen probed in attack but couldn't find a way through, leaving König to resort to another long-range effort on the hour mark.

With 72 minutes gone, the visitors had another sight of goal but Turányi prevented it from being 2-0 with a goalline clearance. Karólína Lea Vilhjálmsdóttir, recently re-loaned from Bayern, entered the fray in the closing stages as the Black-and-Reds increasingly camped themselves in the FSV half, but Gütersloh held on until the end, with Merten having the final chance in added time with a header.

preseason in two parts

This Saturday, 6 July (kick-off 12:30 CEST), the Leverkusen girls play their next friendly at Kurtekotten against Bundesliga rivals Eintracht Frankfurt. Following another clash against second-division Borussia Mönchengladbach on Friday 12 July (18:00 CEST), there's a two-week break. After the resumption on Friday 26 July, the squad head to a training camp in Kattowitz, Poland from 29 July to 5 August. Three more friendlies against international opponents are on the schedule there. The Bundesliga season kicks off at the end of August, followed by the second round of the DFB Cup a week later.

Find Bayer 04 Women's full summer schedule HERE!

Match stats:

Bayer 04, 1st half: Repohl - Skinnes Hansen, Ostermeier, Bragstad, Levels - Zdebel, Piljić, Daedelow, Hainke - Kaiser, Bender

Bayer 04, 2nd half: Repohl - Ostermeier (Skinnes Hansen 67'), Cava Marin, Turányi, Fukumoto - Lindner (Vilhjálmsdóttir 67'), König, Jorde, Kögel - Theus, Merten

Goals: 0-1 Tellenbröker (45'+2)

Referee: Daniel Pilz (Cologne)

Attendance: 100