Dress rehearsal goes to plan! BVB women beat AS Roma 1-0 | OneFootball

Personnel

Five days before the start of the league season, coach Markus Högner named a 21-player squad, still without Dana Marquardt, Emilia Pauls, Mia Scholle and Manuela Zinsberger. The team was led by new signing Alex Popp, who since yesterday, Friday, has been the new captain of the BVB women’s team.

Match proceedings

The match quickly developed into a hard-fought friendly, with both teams recording their first chances after just five minutes. In the 17th minute, BVB suffered a bitter moment when Yasu Wöhrn had to be substituted due to injury after a defensive action. Frederike Kempe came on in her place.

After that, the visitors from Rome repeatedly threatened Laura van der Laan’s goal, but the Black-and-Yellows also created chances: a long-range effort from Alex Popp was only secured at the second attempt by visiting keeper Lukasova. At the other end, things got dangerous again after around half an hour, when Roma could have taken the lead with a fivefold chance (!) – van der Laan and the woodwork each denied them. In an entertaining contest, further opportunities from Popp (37') and Rita Schumacher (41') meant the teams went into the break goalless.

For the second half, Markus Högner brought on two fresh players in Jenske Steenwijk and Ronja Leubner. As rain began to fall, both teams remained highly focused, and in the 57th minute that led to the much-celebrated 1-0 for the home side: after a Schumacher free-kick delivered from the left edge of the penalty area, new signing Lara Schmidt was there to head home!

In the final quarter of the friendly, the teams took a little pace out of the game, and both coaches used this spell to make several substitutions. The opponents threatened once more from set pieces, but without reward. Laura van der Laan also snuffed out a one-on-one chance for the Romans in stoppage time. In the end, it was a hard-earned and cleverly defended 1-0 home win against the current Italian champions and cup holders.

Reaction

Coach Markus Högner: “At the latest after surviving the Romans’ fivefold chance, it became clear that there was something for us to get here today. In the first twenty minutes, we kept losing the ball too quickly from time to time; later, we did a better job of combining bravely going forward. AS Roma wanted to force a quick decision, but we stayed calm well into the second half, so in the end we were able to claim a thoroughly deserved victory.”

Outlook

Next Thursday (20/08, 7 p.m.), the Black-and-Yellows begin the 2026/27 Regionalliga season: Arminia Bielefeld, who finished third in the previous campaign, will be the visitors at Stadion Rote Erde. Tickets for the opener are available online in the ticket shop. In the new season too, Pluto TV will show all BVB women’s league matches live and free of charge.

BVB Women: van der Laan – Wöhrn (17' Kempe), Walkling (64' Günnewig), Maier (46' Steenwijk), Schumacher (77' Böger), Popp (77' Willeke), Ito (64' Reimann), Meißner (46' Leubner), Enderle (77' Maier), Vogel (64' Ostermeier), Schmidt (64' Schuster)

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.