For just about all of the opening 80 minutes of Thursday night’s Women’s Champions League play-off round opener in Germany, Juventus Women were absolutely frustrating the living hell out of the favorite,
Wolfsburg.
Not only were the Bianconere up 2-0 on the scoreboard, but they were limiting a Wolfsburg side that made the final just a couple of years ago to virtually nothing in the attacking third. Nearly nothing. Juve’s counterattacking game plan — one that manager Max Canzi tends to adopt much more often in Europe compared to in Serie A — was looking to be the thing that would lead them to a win and give them a nice advantage heading into next week’s decisive second leg at the J Stadium in Turin.
Then those final 10 minutes and stoppage time happened. And that two-goal lead Juve had? Well, away it went.
Thanks first to a lengthy VAR review that led to Wolfsburg scoring a penalty on their first shot on goal of the night and then a last-second golazo from Sarai Linder off a failed clearance from a corner kick, Juventus Women’s 2-0 lead disappeared and things ended level at 2-2. It was a bitter end to what was looking like a big upset win away from home in a matchup in which the Bianconere are the clear underdog against one of the stronger teams in the UWCL play-off round trying to get into the quarterfinals. So instead of a 2-0 or 2-1 lead, Juve now have to beat Wolfsburg this coming Thursday night in the second leg if they want to get into the quarterfinals and meet another one of the European giants that are sitting back and watching the play-off round from home in the form of OL Lyonnes, a team they faced back in the UWCL league phase.
That last-second goal, for as tough as it was to see, was a rather stunning strike. See for yourself …
Yes, that is a great goal. The ability to clear the ball when you desperately needed to and subsequently end the game? Not so much, but it is one hell of a strike to beat an in-form goalkeeper like Juve’s Daniëlle de Jong most certainly is. (Also, de Jong was wearing the Bianconere’s away kit as her keeper kit on Thursday night. We need more of this and there will never be anything that tells me otherwise.)
But to see Wolfsburg score that late and right on the cusp of the final whistle sounding put a massive damper on what Juventus Women were able to do up until that point. Juve took a 1-0 lead less than six minutes in when Portuguese striker Ana Capeta — who was signed all of 10 days ago in a final move to close the winter transger window and give Canzi more depth up front — flicked on a corner kick from young Spanish fullback Estela Carbonell. They doubled their lead at the hour mark when Amalie Vangsgaard’s shot got a very friendly deflection and looped over the defense and into the Wolfsburg goal.
It was looking like both the execution of the game plan and the luck was all on Juve’s side.
Then, as the final 10 minutes arrived, the tide started to turn toward the home side and it was Wolfsburg getting a penalty kick after a long VAR check. The subsequent penalty sent de Jong the wrong way and the Juve lead was cut in half. It was a call that certainly wasn’t as clear-cut as it might appear, with the Bianconere being on the short end of another crucial VAR call on the European stage.
You be the judge …
Even with over 70% possession, Wolfsburg finished with just three of their 15 shots on the night going on target.
Unfortunately, two of those ended up being goals.
Holding onto leads this season has been an issue for Canzi’s side — and that showed its ugly head again on Thursday when it looked like they would be taking a lead back with them to Turin. Which, when you consider how they defended and really limited Wolfsburg to much of anything of substance for much of the night, certainly looked possible as time went on.
“There’s a bitter taste in our mouths, of course: we came within a whisker of victory, we could have certainly done better on the final play of the game, but if you analyse the match, a draw is probably the fairest result,” Canzi said after the Wolfsburg draw. “That’s football, it can happen, and I’m happy with my players’ performance against such a strong team. Of course, having come within a whisker of victory, we thought we’d walk away with that result, but we’ll have to be good at analysing this draw properly.”
Even with fifth-place Lazio next up on the sehedule on Sunday as Juventus Women look to keep pace with league leaders Roma, Canzi will most certainly rotate his squad and try and set things up for the second leg against Wolfsburg. The status of midfielder Lia Wälti — who had to be subbed off 10 minutes into the second half due to injury — will be crucial seeing as she has been a key piece to things when they go right in Europe. But more than anything else, adding to the list of thrilling European moments at the J Stadium is still on the cards.
They don’t have the lead on aggregate like it looked like they would for much of Thursday night’s first leg, but now they know exactly what they have to do seven days from now to get to the UWCL quarterfinals — just win.
