The first match day in the Women’s Bundesliga ended with a curiosity!
Cup winners Wolfsburg drew 3:3 (1:2) with Werder Bremen, making up two deficits in the process. There is a lot of discussion about the goal that led to the final score – was the ball really behind the line?
Or will Alexandra Popp (33) score a phantom goal?
▶ 66th minute: The Wolves striker runs at Werder’s goalkeeper Livia Peng (22) in the opponent’s penalty area. She blocks the pass, the ball flies in an arc towards the Bremen goal and falls exactly on the line.
ON the line, not behind it. The ball appears to have a backwards spin, so that Peng can then punch the ball back into the field. Despite this, referee Nadine Westerhoff (41) decides it was a goal. Much to the guests’ dismay.
Peng clears the ball on the line
There is no video referee in the Women’s Bundesliga, so the decision is not subject to review.
Popp said after the game on Sport1: “I don’t know whether the ball was completely behind the line. So it was lucky for us because we weren’t forceful enough going forward even after the goal.”
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Overall, the Wolves were disappointing against a Bremen team that was weakened by a lack of replacements. New signing Sarai Linder (who came from Hoffenheim) put the cup winners in the lead (11th minute), but Tuana Mahmoud and Larissa Mühlhaus turned the game around before half-time (35th/40th). Lena Lattwein equalized for Wolfsburg (61st), before things got strange for the first time.
▶ 62nd minute: Kathrin Hendrich passes to Janina Minge, who plays a botched back pass without being challenged. Because goalkeeper Merle Frohms is standing slightly off to the side of her goal, the ball rolls into the goal. Frohms tries to save it, but slides the ball into the net. She is credited with the very strange own goal.
Then Popp makes up for it in a way that is at least as strange…
This goal brings back memories of Stefan Kießling. The Leverkusen striker also scored a phantom goal against Hoffenheim in October 2013. His header went past the post, but ended up in the goal through a hole in the net. Felix Brych decided it was a goal at the time – two years before goal-line technology was introduced in the Bundesliga.
