Wolfsburg out despite inflicting first Barcelona defeat

Wolfsburg 2-0 Barcelona (aggregate: 3-5)
(Wassmuth 47', Roord 59')
Volkswagen Arena

Wolfsburg inflicted the first defeat of the season on high-flying Barcelona with a 2-0 win in the Champions League semifinal second leg — ultimately crashing out 5-3 on aggregate.

The Catalans will face either Paris Saint-Germain or Olympique Lyon in the final in Turin, but the Bundesliga leaders exited the European stage with their heads held high thanks to second-half goals from Tabea Wassmuth and Jill Roord in front of a record 22,057 home crowd at the Volkswagen Arena.

"We showed our true face today and gave the fans a good game," goalkeeper Almuth Schult told broadcaster DAZN. "But it's obviously bitter that we lost this tie in the first leg."

Having been thoroughly outplayed in the first leg in Barcelona last week, the chances of progressing to the final were slim to nonexistent for Tommy Stroot's team, but his players were out to show that the gulf in class is not as big as the first leg score perhaps suggested.

After surviving a first half in which Barcelona created the better chances — Ana-Maria Crnogorcevic with the best of them just before the break — Wolfsburg took a surprise lead after the restart when Wassmuth's volley was deflected in.

"I'm proud of the team, especially as the second leg we showed what we are made of and we could have had a few more goals," Wassmuth told DAZN. "It wasn't easy to come back after the first leg and beat Barcelona." 

Ten minutes later, Roord made it 2-0 with a well-placed effort from outside the box to ignite a faint hope among the home crowd that maybe — just maybe — a miracle was possible.

But the visitors defended solidly and, without creating many meaningful chances of their own, saw out the tie.