Wolfsburg dug out a draw against Potsdam to keep them top on goal difference alone after Freiburg had temporarily gone top of the FBL table with a healthy win over Bremen, Munich still in the mix after having found a late win at home to Sand. Elsewhere Duisburg came unstuck late in Frankfurt as Hoffenheim hit Köln for three and Essen thumped Jena.
SC Freiburg 4-1 Werder Bremen
Still scoring for fun, Freiburg eased past Bremen in the early Sunday kick-off, Giulia Gwinn’s looped header thirteen minutes in enough to open the scoring minutes after Hasret Kayikçi had been denied by both Anneke Borbe and the woodwork in the same breath.
Having already shown their class this season, Werder responded well, limiting the host’s chances and even pulling level at the start of the second-half, Franziska Gieseke’s toe-poke enough to take Gabriella Tóth’s deflected shot out of Laura Benkarth’s gloves and into the back of the net.
In no mood to drop points in their pursuit of the Wolfsburg and FBL title, the Freiburgers rallied well to find a way back through and grab an all-important second goal, Lina Magull’s clean footwork too much for the defence, her shot too much for Borbe. Moving up through the gears, the hosts soon found a third, Klara Bühl’s clinical arrow from the top left of the box to the far corner enough to confirm the points. Magull’s late second the cherry on top of a fine win, her deft touch at a dead ball more than enough to beat the wall, the ball arcing into the top corner before Borbe could get anywhere near it.
Having only scored four goals less than Wolfsburg, SCF are keeping check well and look to push the champions all the way, their November meeting set to be one of the games of the season.
FFC Frankfurt 2-1 MSV Duisburg
Still looking for their first points of the season, Duisburg were given an early boost when Pia Rijsdijk nodded Stefanie Weichelt’s dinked cross home just four minutes into the game in Hesse. Growing into the game and the season, FFC drew level in similar circumstances, Sophie Schmidt lively at the far post to head Ana-Maria Crnogorčević’s floated ball beyond Lena Nuding.
Dominant in the match, Frankfurt struggled for shots with real purpose a lovely piece of linkup from Kumi Yokoyama between substitutes Lise Munk and Lily Agg drew a fine save from Nuding, the resulting corner enough to bring about a winner. Marith Prießen’s header enough to see Nuding called into action again, her parry soft allowing Munk to nip in and slam the ball home from close range, the three points scooped with less than ten minutes left on the clock.
The win Frankfurt’s fourth of the year and suggests signs of growth after a muted 2016-17 season, for Duisburg it’s another disappointing result. MSV’s fifth loss of the season but encouragingly each has only been lost by one goal, and they are in fact in the middle of a run of seven matches (in all competitions) that have been lost by a lone goal.
Bayern München 2-0 SC Sand
On top for the bulk of the match, Munich struggled to make their possession count and rarely asked too much of Carina Schlüter, the young ‘keeper bright to save Simone Laudehr’s second-half penalty before Melanie Behringer bested her from the spot eight minutes from time. Having won the spot-kick to give her team the lead just six minutes after coming on, Jill Roord was involved again at the death to add a second in stoppage time with a fine solo goal.
The win keeps Munich in the mix though it was far from routine, Sand stay just below half-way still showing their strength.
FC Köln 0-3 TSG Hoffenheim
Coming into the match with the worst stats in the league, Köln would have hoped to have some luck at home against a below-par Hoffenheim side and after managing to avoid conceding in the first-half they finally looked like they might seal a point this year. However, on the backfoot for large swathes of the first-half the opening goal seemed an inevitability, Maximiliane Rall’s angled shot from a tight angle enough to sneak behind Anne-Kathrine Kremer.
Sharon Beck grabbed her second of the year, given a second bite of the cherry after Kremer had saved her initial effort, Beck fired into the far side of the net, the home defence scattered. Lena Lattwein soon made it three with a casual finish from just inside of the box, the Billygoats left in pieces once more.
SGS Essen 6-0 USV Jena
Essen’s mixed bag of a season continued when they hosted a struggling Jena side on Sunday, the hosts able to cruise to victory after a first-half collapse from their opposition.
Irini Ioannidou started the rout less than twenty minutes in with a low effort from just inside the box that slipped under Justien Odeurs twenty minutes before Shannon Woeller got her feet in a muddle and ended up poking Linda Dallmann’s effort home.
Just two minutes later, Jana Feldkamp volleyed Lea Schüller’s whipped cross into the back of the net to make it three, the Esseners just getting warmed up, Nicole Anyomi on hand to add another before the break with a side-footed finish into the open goal.
With the hosts cruising, Feldkamp was involved again in the second-half, dancing around in the box to draw a foul from Sandra Žigić, Ioannidou denied from the spot by Odeurs before tucking home the rebound. Foot off of the gas there was still time for Essen to make it six, Sarah Freutel fresh off of the bench and sharply onto the scoresheet to roll the ball into the far corner.
VfL Wolfsburg 2-2 Turbine Potsdam
Already having dropped four points this season, Potsdam were looking for a win against an unbeatable looking Wolfsburg team and got off to a strong start at the AOK though it wasn’t long before the hosts settled into the game. A miss-hit cross from Anna Blässe enough to sneak in at the near post and give current champions the lead after some sustained pressure.
Behind for little more than five minutes, the chasing Potsdamers restored parity through stalwart Tabea Kemme when the attacker latched onto Johanna Elsig’s long ball and swept it past the advancing Almuth Schult.
The game remained opened until after the hour when the hosts amped up the pressure flooding the away box until they found another route through to goal. Pernille Harder sharp to edge in front of Caroline Siems and poke Ewa Pajor’s sublime cross home from two yards just moments after Caroline Graham Hansen had seen her volley cannon off of the upright. Largely overrun after the break, Kemme once again found a quick-fire response, charging down a soft back-pass from Lena Goeßling, quick to her feet to roll the ball into the empty net after colliding with Schult just outside the box.
The draw sees Wolfsburg’s grip at the top loosen, the champions tied for points with Freiburg – the only other team to have a perfect record except for a draw with the Turbines – their goal difference enough to keep them top. The draw, Potsdam’s third of the year, the only team outside of the top two to still be unbeaten the six points dropped enough to keep them down in sixth.
