A tough week continued for Manchester United as Wolfsburg recovered from Fridrina Rolfo’s opener to eliminate 5-2 winners in Germany, ending their perfect Champions League record with their second defeat in five days.
Against Man City on Saturday, United scored four goals in a game for the first time this season, making it too easy for the hosts to score after their previously solid defense had been breached three times.
Things started very brightly for Mark Skinner’s side, who took an early lead through Rolfo’s bullet header, but Wolfsburg took full control three minutes later when Ella Pedemos exploited Safia Middleton-Patel’s missed clearance.
Manchester United’s generous defending against Pedemose continued before half-time when her cross was forced past Middleton Patel’s near post and the hosts looked headed for victory when Reince Behrenstein fired home a superb third goal.
Melvin Mallard restored hope with a goal soon after, but momentum remained with the home side after the break, with Behrenstein adding a second goal and Maya Le Tissier scoring a well-deserved fourth goal with a groin shot.
As if to sum up their predicament, Man United’s Jade Riviere completed her hat-trick with a blind backpass to Middleton-Patel, which was intercepted by Vivian Endemann and rolled past the goalkeeper to end a disastrous night for the WSL side.
Despite the heavy defeat, Manchester United have won three of their last four matches in all competitions, leaving them with a temporary spot in the Women’s Champions League quarter-finals automatic spot.
Skinner: United receive punishment from clinical Wolfsburg
Manchester United manager Marc Skinner felt his team had been “punished” by Wolfsburg.
“The coach’s and my experience is that they had six shots on target and scored five goals,” Skinner told MUTV after suffering their first loss of the tournament.
“That’s part of the game and you have to understand. I don’t think it was a 5-2 game. I think we gave them almost three or four of those goals.”
“It’s up to us as a collective. We’ll learn from it and help the young team grow. We’ve had a great performance in this competition so far, and tonight we just played a team that will punish us.”
“They haven’t done anything special. They’re a direct team so they have to be better at controlling the game. There are mistakes we made tonight and we have to correct them and make sure we don’t do them again.”
