Women's Champions League: Wolfsburg advance to final

Dreams are made for dreaming and Svenja Huth was doing just that in the press conference looking ahead to Tuesday night's semifinal against Barcelona.

Thinking back to the 2012-13 season, the last time that Bayern Munich won the treble on the men's side, Huth good-heartedly reminded reporters that the women of Wolfsburg also won the treble during that illustrious campaign. So Bayern winning the men's Champions League on Sunday had to be "a good omen." Right?  

Read more: Wolfsburg 'have the right mentality'

Perhaps. But nobody in head coach Stephan Lerch's squad was under any illusions about the fact that Barca would provide a much sterner test to that posed by Glasgow in the quarterfinals, when Pernille Harder scored four on the way to a 9-1 walkover for Wolfsburg.   

And if any of Lerch's women had any doubts, they received an early awakening. The Nigerian Asisat Oshoala had the first half-chance of the match, striking the ball from just inside the Wolfsburg area, but only hitting the side netting.

Then defender Kathrin-Julia Hendrich's inadvertent touch almost put the ball past her own keeper from a corner, but Friedericke Abt alertly touched it around the outside of the bar. In fact, the television replay showed that the ball had made contact with Hendrich's hand inside the area, but fortunately for Wolfsburg the referee missed it, and with VAR not in use, the Wölfinnen were off the hook. 

What followed was a mighty battle between the German and the Spanish champions, with each side taking turns putting pressure on the other. However, both found it difficult to create really clear-cut chances on goal. By early in the second half it was already starting to look like this one may have to go to extra time or even penalties before it would be decided.  

The breakthrough wouldn't come until the 58th minute. With Wolfsburg piling on the pressure in the Barcelona area, the ball bounded up in the air and in the middle of traffic, Polish forward Eva Pajor went for one of the game's most spectacular moves, the bicycle kick. What a spectacular goal it would have been, had it not been bundled off the line! However, to Wolfsburg's delight, the ball rebounded into the path of left midfielder Fridolina Rolfö who buried it to give the Wölfinnen the only advantage they would need on this night. Having gone down a goal and seeing their hopes of reaching the final fading, Barcelona poured on the pressure for the last half hour, creating a few excellent opportunities, but to Stephan Lerch's delight, they just couldn't find the back of the net.  

"The blood pressure has come down a bit," Lerch told reporters a few minutes after the final whistle. "But this really was an intense match."

Having already won the women's Bundesliga and the German Cup, Tuesday night's victory, as slim as it was, kept Wolfsburg's aspirations of winning a second treble in club history alive. They now move on to face either Olympique Lyon or Paris Saint-Germain in Sunday's final.

Only then we will find out whether Svenja Huth was right in her supposition that Bayern completing their treble a week earlier really was "a good omen."