Alexandra Popp did not simply end fourteen years at VfL Wolfsburg. She signed until 2029 with Borussia Dortmund, who missed promotion by two points and remain in the Regionalliga, the third tier of German women’s football. The captain of a club that won this competition in 2013 and 2014 is playing two divisions below the Bundesliga.
Ten players left Wolfsburg this summer and nine arrived. The team has changed; the obligation has not. The winners of Wednesday’s tie go into the Champions League league phase; the losers stay in Europe but drop into the second qualifying round of the Women’s Europa Cup.
A rebuilt squad, and two of the leavers are in Amsterdam
Wolfsburg reached the quarter-finals last season, but second place in the Frauen-Bundesliga no longer earns a direct place: Bayern, the champions, were the only German club to go straight into the league phase.
Two of the departures went to Real Madrid — Lineth Beerensteyn on 16 June and Janou Levels on 11 July. Both play their own qualifier on Wednesday evening, in Amsterdam, at the same time as this one.
Svenja Huth and Janina Minge remain in a dressing room that has taken in nine new players.
Three out, and a coach who does not want experiments
Stephan Lerch confirmed the absences on Tuesday. “Lena Lattwein, Cecilie Floe Nielsen and Giovanna Hoffmann cannot be involved tomorrow,” he said, adding of Lattwein that “she is on a good path and can probably rejoin team training soon”. He named no one else.
He is not planning anything unusual either: “This is a big match. It would be the wrong moment for big experiments.”
Lerch wants continuity from the side that opened the Bundesliga on Saturday, though that game read two ways. Wolfsburg were 0-2 down at half-time at Nürnberg. A home red card on 51 minutes opened a different match: Minge pulled one back from the penalty spot on 56, Cora Zicai levelled five minutes later and it finished 8-2.
Eight goals in the second half — but they needed to play against ten to settle a game in which they had been vulnerable throughout the first. The win corrected a worse start: seven days earlier they had lost 0-3 to Bayern in the German Super Cup.
Zicai sees the tie differently. “If we are there at 100 per cent, then we can definitely dominate Milan,” she said. “I have a lot of confidence in my game right now.”
Inter already know what a qualifier costs
The gap in European experience is enormous, but Inter are no longer debutants.
Their women’s team has existed since 2018, when the club acquired the sporting rights of ASD Femminile Inter Milano. In eight years they have gone from the second division to back-to-back Serie A runners-up finishes.
Last season they played a Champions League qualifier for the first time and lost to Brann. They carried on in the Women’s Europa Cup, knocked out Hibernian and Vllaznia and reached the round of 16, where they went out to Häcken, who went on to win it.
They have a new coach too. David Sassarini arrived in July after a season in charge of Napoli, his first in women’s football. His Inter closed pre-season by beating Union Berlin 1-0 and Newcastle 2-0 at St James’ Park.
Their first competitive match was on Friday against Parma in the Serie A Women’s Cup, won 1-0 with a goal from Karólína Vilhjálmsdóttir on 47 minutes. Serie A does not begin until the weekend of 26-27 September, but the new league cup means Inter do not arrive in Wolfsburg without competitive football.
Lerch described them as “disciplined and structured in defence”, a side that “likes to bring emotion and physicality into the game”. The German plan is to move the ball until that structure breaks: “It is very important that we stay ourselves and let the ball run with good intensity.”
Magull returns to Wolfsburg; Sheila makes her debut
Lina Magull played for Wolfsburg between 2012 and 2015. On Wednesday she goes back to the AOK Stadion in an Inter shirt, the visiting player who knows the ground best.
Sheila García does the opposite: she starts. She left Real Madrid on 12 July and will wear 15 in a squad that keeps Elisa Bartoli, Olivia Schough, Marie Detruyer and Vilhjálmsdóttir.
The main change up front is the absence of Tessa Wullaert, last season’s Serie A top scorer, who left for Como.
A league match before the return
Both sides play again on Sunday 30 August. Wolfsburg go to Bayer Leverkusen at 4pm CEST on Bundesliga matchday two; two hours later, Inter host Napoli in the Women’s Cup.
The tie is settled on Wednesday 2 September at 6.30pm CEST at the Stadio Ernesto Breda in Sesto San Giovanni, and not at the Arena Civica where Inter usually play their league football.
Kick-off time and how to watch
The first leg is on Wednesday 26 August at 6pm CEST — 5pm in the UK — at the AOK Stadion. The club expects around 2,200 spectators for its first home match of the season.
Wölfe TV is showing the match free on its YouTube channel. In Germany it is also free-to-air on DF1 and streamed on df1.de. Every option in the round is gathered in our guide to watching them.
Romania’s Iuliana Demetrescu referees, with Paulina Baranowska and Irina Pozdejeva as assistants and Ana Maria Terteleac as fourth official. The second leg is on 2 September at 6.30pm CEST.
