Uka Festival
Austria Women’s Team in the Champions League for the First Time!
The women’s soccer team from Austria Vienna has advanced to the group stage of the Women’s Champions League. The Austrian double champions secured their biggest international success with a 4-0 rout at home against SK Brann Bergen.
Kronen Zeitung als bevorzugte Google-Quelle hinzufügen They had lost the first leg 1–2 last week in Norway. Modesta Uka was the match winner; the Kosovar national team player scored three goals. Austria will now face several continental powerhouses in the group stage.
Brann had gone into the match as the favorite, and Austria hadn’t exactly gotten off to a great start in the national championship either. But Coach Stefan Kenesei’s squad was determined to turn the tables—and that was evident from the very start at Franz-Horr Stadium. Verena Hanshaw fired the first real warning shot from the left side, just inside the penalty area. The 32-year-old had been forced to return to Scandinavia before the first leg for personal reasons, but was now the only new addition to the team able to bring her experience to bear.
The opening goal came from a penalty kick earned and converted by Uka. The 27-year-old was brought down by Nea Lehtola and confidently slotted the ball into the lower left corner. Austria goalkeeper Jasmin Pal was forced to make her first serious save in the 24th minute, and the Norwegians began to gain momentum in the minutes leading up to halftime. Nevertheless, the home team managed to carry their lead into the break with relative ease. The spectators at Verteilerkreis were treated to a fast-paced, attacking display by the Violets.
Austria Unstoppable After the Break
And so it continued in the second half, though the additional goals initially required a bit of help from the opposing goalkeeper. First, Uka, following an assist from Patricia Pfanner, unleashed a curling shot with her right foot that dipped into the top corner. Goalkeeper Sunniva Skoglund got her fingertips to it but couldn’t hold onto the ball because she was standing a little too far in front of the goal. Things got even worse for her in the 66th minute, when the 24-year-old let a back pass roll under her foot into the goal while trying to stop it.
Even before that own goal, a defender had deflected a Schiechtl free kick—awarded after a foul on Valentina Pötzl—onto the crossbar; Austria was unable to capitalize on the ball that bounced back into play. For the visiting team—who had observed a minute of silence before kickoff to honor the late King Harald V—things got even worse, as Uka wasn’t done yet. A well-placed and sharply struck free kick by the striker went just to the left of the post; Skoglund had no chance (78th minute). In addition, a long-range shot by Uka went just wide (81st minute).
After advancing with an aggregate score of 5–2, the Austria women’s team is now eagerly awaiting Wednesday’s Champions League draw. The league phase is scheduled to begin on September 22–23.
This article has been automatically translated,
read the original article here.
Willkommen in unserer Community! Eingehende Beiträge werden geprüft und anschließend veröffentlicht. Bitte achten Sie auf Einhaltung unserer Netiquette und AGB. Für ausführliche Diskussionen steht Ihnen ebenso das krone.at-Forum zur Verfügung. Hier können Sie das Community-Team via unserer Melde- und Abhilfestelle kontaktieren.
User-Beiträge geben nicht notwendigerweise die Meinung des Betreibers/der Redaktion bzw. von Krone Multimedia (KMM) wieder. In diesem Sinne distanziert sich die Redaktion/der Betreiber von den Inhalten in diesem Diskussionsforum. KMM behält sich insbesondere vor, gegen geltendes Recht verstoßende, den guten Sitten oder der Netiquette widersprechende bzw. dem Ansehen von KMM zuwiderlaufende Beiträge zu löschen, diesbezüglichen Schadenersatz gegenüber dem betreffenden User geltend zu machen, die Nutzer-Daten zu Zwecken der Rechtsverfolgung zu verwenden und strafrechtlich relevante Beiträge zur Anzeige zu bringen (siehe auch AGB). Hier können Sie das Community-Team via unserer Melde- und Abhilfestelle kontaktieren.