Man Utd’s difficult week continued as Wolfsburg ended their perfect Champions League run with a 5-2 win in Germany. After United’s defence had been breached three times at Manchester City on Saturday, they conceded four goals in a match for the first time this season and made life easy for their opponents.
United started brightly, taking an early lead through Fridolina Rolfo’s header, but a poor clearance from Safia Middleton-Patel was seized upon by Ella Peddemors three minutes later and Wolfsburg took control. Peddemors’ cross was then allowed to squeeze beyond Middleton-Patel at her near post before half-time, and Lineth Beerensteyn added a superb third to put the hosts firmly on course for victory.
Melvine Malard pulled one back for United moments later, briefly restoring hope, but Wolfsburg kept the momentum after the break. Beerensteyn struck again, firing through the legs of Maya Le Tissier, and Vivien Endemann profited from a blind back pass by Jayde Riviere to intercept Middleton-Patel, round the goalkeeper and complete the scoring, capping a miserable night for the WSL side.
Despite the heavy defeat, United remain temporarily inside the Women’s Champions League quarter-final automatic qualifying places, with three wins from four in the competition so far.
Manchester United boss Marc Skinner said his side were “punished” by Wolfsburg. Speaking to MUTV, he noted: “They’ve had six shots on target and scored five. That’s part and parcel of the game, you have to understand it. I don’t think it was a 5-2 game, I think we’ve given them almost three or four of those goals. It’s on us as a collective. We’ll learn from it, it will help our young team grow. We’ve been excellent this competition so far. We’ve just played a team tonight that’s punished us. They’ve done nothing special, they’re a direct team and so we have to be better at controlling the game. There are mistakes we’ve made tonight that we have to put right and make sure we don’t do again.”
Women’s Champions League fixtures: Man United Women fixtures.