Wolfsburg Women eliminated Bayern Munich Women from the German Cup semi-final on the fourth of April following a 2-0 win for the hosts who will soon face the winners of the other semi-final, Eintracht Frankfurt in the final.
Wolfsburg were brave enough to put their bitter UEFA Women’s Champions League loss against Chelsea behind their backs and even though they faced one of the best European teams, they succeeded in reaching the DFB Pokal Women final and therefore in redeeming themselves from that demoralising loss.
In this tactical analysis article, we will explore the tactics of Wolfsburg in this match and how they were able to stop Bayern Munich’s attacking threat while also scoring two goals. The analysis will consist of looking at Wolfsburg’s defensive performance and key positives before moving to tackling their attacking performance and why Bayern conceded two goals.
Line-ups
Stephan Lerch started the match with a 4-2-3-1 formation with Katarzyna Kiedrzynek as a goalkeeper, Kathrin Hendrich, Sara Doorsoun, Dominique Janssen and Felicitas Rauch in defence, Lena Oberdorf and Ingrid Syrstad Engen as central midfielders with Alexandra Popp as an advanced playmaker and both Rebecka Blomqvist and Svenja Huth as wingers to support the team’s striker, Ewa Pajor.
The visitors played according to Jens Scheuer’s preferred 4-2-3-1 formation as well relying on Laura Benkarth as a goalkeeper, Hanna Glas, Carina Wenninger, Marina Hegering and Amanda Ilestedt in defence, Lina Magull and Sarah Zadrazil as central midfielders, Linda Dallmann as an advanced playmaker, Klara Bühl and Lineth Beerensteyn as wingers with Lea Schüller as a striker.
Wolfsburg’s defensive compactness
Wolfsburg were solid at the back throughout the game and prevented Bayern from creating a lot of danger despite the opponent’s strong attacking players. In fact, Wolfsburg relied on stopping Bayern’s advancement from the initial build-up and before reaching Wolfsburg’s half. And this created many problems for Bayern Munich’s players who found a lot of difficulties when trying to link defence to midfield and attack. Both Zadrazil and Magull were often marked by Popp, Huth like you can see in this picture and at other times by Blomqvist as well.
Moreover, Pajor had the duty of marking and disturbing the centre-backs while Engen and Oberdorf made sure that no attacking player remains unmarked in order to intercept crosses if Bayern’s centre-backs resort to that long-balls option.
This organisation and tight marking enabled Wolfsburg to attack more and intercept the ball a lot especially when Bayern players launch desperate passes to marked players like this example shows. Wolfsburg’s midfielders were attentive enough to automatically mark the ball holders whenever they get it and the numerical superiority granted by the full-backs at times and by the centre-backs at other times allowed Wolfsburg to be superior in terms of defending.
