It is an impressive record that VfL Wolfsburg can boast of in the DFB Cup. The last defeat was 44 games, almost ten years ago, and they have won the competition eight times in a row. It doesn’t really matter who VfL meets in the final on Thursday (4.45 p.m. / ARD and Sky), the Wolfsburg women are big favorites anyway.
Now the opponent in the Cologne stadium is SC Freiburg and they are looking for revenge against Tommy Stroot’s team, who won the cup for the first time almost exactly ten years ago. For the Freiburg women, who are trained by one of the two coaches in the first Bundesliga, Theresa Merk, it is only the second final appearance in the club’s history.
In the last ten cup appearances, the path ended six times in the semi-finals, last year – as so often – they were eliminated by Wolfsburg in the round of 16. The memories of the lost final four years ago are likely to be more painful. There, the Wolfsburg team won 1-0 with a goal from Ewa Pajor. “In any case, we still have a very, very big score to settle,” said Hasret Kayikci, who has been playing in Freiburg since 2011, recently on the podcast “The 45 – One Half Time Women’s Football”.
For Kayikci this season, the win over RB Leipzig, promoted to the first division, in the semi-finals was a very special one, when she scored the golden goal in the sixth minute of added time. Freiburg’s captain later said that the pressure before a game was rarely so high. “For us, losing was really forbidden.” That also had something to do with the history of the club, because the Freiburg men’s team lost the cup final against Leipzig last year.
Wolfsburg recently lost significantly in the league
Kayikci’s women’s team also traveled to Berlin last summer and after missing out on the win, the Freiburg women’s goal was very clear to win the first major title for the club from Breisgau. Because winning the cup was not only the dream of the men, but also that of the women’s team. The fact that this should be a huge challenge against Wolfsburg has not only been clear since their surprisingly clear 5-0 win over FC Bayern Munich in the semi-finals of the cup.
Like hardly any other team, Wolfsburg can call up their best performance in the decisive moments and thus have an incredible quality in knockout games. In addition, the DFB Cup is the undisputed favorite competition of the women in Wolfsburg.
Nevertheless, Freiburg can hope for a surprise with striker Kayikci. On Sunday, Eintracht Frankfurt proved with a 4-0 win in the league that Wolfsburg can be beaten on a good day. In addition, Wolfsburg still has a Champions League final to play in two weeks and the chances of winning the championship have dropped significantly after last weekend. So the focus could be a little different at VfL.
For the young Freiburg team, which has often impressed in the league this season, it is important to keep the zero at the back for as long as possible and not to let your own nervousness unsettle you in view of the great crowd in Cologne. 40,000 tickets have already been sold for the final, as the DFB announced on Tuesday. It has been a fact for a long time that there will be a record attendance.
At least Kayikci knows how to do it. The 32-year-old won the cup with FCR 2001 Duisburg in 2009 and 2010 – but a win with Freiburg should mean even more to her.
