Women put six past Werder Bremen and set points record

"After hard work in the first half, we remain focused after the restart, gave little away and banked on Bremen becoming tired and more spaces being created," said Pätzold: "The early goal from a set piece played into our hands. We wanted to be aggressive and put Bremen off from the start. We remained ambitious over 90 minutes and even failed to make use of a couple of situations.”

After the 2-0 away win at Carl Zeiss Jena, the coach made one change to his starting line-up. The injured Janou Levels (muscular problems) was replaced at left-back by Shen Menglu.

The prospect of a possible points record – the victory in Jena levelled the previous record of 33 points from the 2020/21 season – appeared to give the Bayer 04 Women a boost from the kick-off. And the match got off to the required start. A corner from Bender on two minutes brought the lead with the Werder keeper Sofja Nesterova punching the ball into her own net.

Werkself control the game

After an early substitution due to an injury for the visitors, it took Werder Bremen 12 minutes to get over the halfway line for the first time. Bayer 04 controlled the game but initially failed to create clear goalscoring opportunities. A long-range effort from Menglu flew over the bar (17'), a cross from the right was plucked out of the air by Nesterova. Bremen posed the first threat shortly after that with Maja Sternad shooting from the edge of the penalty area. Her low shot went just wide of the right-hand post (27'). Werder gradually improved and turned out to be the tough opponents Pätzold warned about before the game.

But then it was Bender again who dashed Bremen hopes on the 39 minutes. The forward hit the ball into the top left corner of the Werder net from around 20 metres out to secure a 2-0 lead and that was the score at half-time.

Anybody who still doubted that the Pätzold team would remained focused this afternoon had their minds settled by Bender and Kehrer shortly after the restart. On 50 minutes, Bender beat two opponents, broke into the box and she picked out Kehrer who scored with an unhurried tap-in. And Kehrer found the back of the net again five minutes later: This time it was Kramer who set up Kehrer with a whipped-in cross from the right as the Werkself went 4-0 up.

Bender and Kehrer seal the win

Pätzold made substitutions shortly after that with goalscorers Bender and Kehrer receiving justified applause from the fans as they came off. Leverkusen gave nothing away as they focused on sealing the win with other chances coming including a great one for Kristin Kögel (71'). Kramer made it 5-0 five minutes later and Boboy rounded off the scoring at 6-0 three minutes later. The 36 points achieved to date this term is a record for the Bayer 04 Women during their time in the Bundesliga.

outlook: friendly against Eintracht Frankfurt

While the two DFB Pokal semi-final games are played at the weekend, the Werkself will use the break for another friendly. The Pätzold team take on league rivals Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday, 22 March at the school stadium in Westerburg. The kick-off is at 12:00 CET and entrance is free. The Google Pixel Women's Bundesliga returns on Sunday, 30 March (15:15 CEST) with an away game at champions Bayern Munich on matchday 18.

Match stats:

Bayer 04: Repohl – Merino Gonzalez, Ostermeier, Turanyi (Friedrich 70'), Menglu (Mickenhagen 59') - Zdebel, Vidal (Grant 78’) – Bender (Vilhjalmsdottir 59’), Kögel - Kramer, Kehrer (Boboy 59’)

Werder Bremen: Nesterova – Hausicke, Brandenburg (7. Schmidt 7’), Nemeth – Sternad, Walkling (Ronan 78’), Arfaoui (Penner 78’), Dieckmann, Wieder – Wichmann (Papai 46’), Mühlhaus (Weidauer 69’)

Goals: 1-0 Nesterova (o.g. 2’), 2-0 Bender (39’), 3-0 Kehrer (50’), 4-0 Kehrer (55’), 5-0 Kramer (76’), 6-0 Boboy (79’)

Yellow cards: Kehrer - Hausicke

Referee: Selina Menzel (Hambrücken)

Attendance: 784 at the Ulrich Haberland Stadion