BVB women travel to Cologne for the fourth time, facing Fortuna on Friday evening

BVB women travel to Cologne for the fourth time, facing Fortuna on Friday evening

The scenarioRhade as a preview of upcoming matches: In the post-match analysis of the 3-1 home win against SSV Rhade, coach Markus Högner praised his team’s “dominant performance with what felt like 85 percent possession”. Thanks to solid defensive work, the BVB women once again allowed their opponents few scoring opportunities, quickly responded to the equaliser, and ultimately celebrated a well-deserved win at the Rote Erde Stadium. Högner expects deep-lying opponents like SSV Rhade, who had only conceded eight goals in eight matches in the second half of the season prior to the BVB game, to be a recurring theme in the final four Regionalliga West matches. “We will have to continue working on our positioning. It’s a topic we meticulously addressed this week in training.”

Personnel situationBorussia Dortmund’s women's team will have to do without Marina Scholz for their away game on Friday evening. “Due to a thigh strain, she probably won’t be able to return to training until next week,” explains Markus Högner.

The opponentFortuna Köln’s women’s team from the southern part of the city are having a strong second half of the season. Fortuna have earned 18 points from nine games (five wins, three draws) and lost only to the U21 team of 1. FC Köln. When Borussia Dortmund’s women’s team won 6-0 in the first half of the season, Fortuna was still in tenth place. Now the club has fought its way up to fifth place – just one point behind fourth-placed Bayer Leverkusen. A development that Markus Högner also acknowledges: “Fortuna Köln have many good and experienced players in its ranks. In addition, they signed Danielle Bender in winter, a dangerous goalscorer who has already scored five goals in the last four games.”