First she showed strong saves, then big feelings: The successful return after her repeated cancer therapy made Ann-Katrin Berger overjoyed.
"I'm happy to be back home in Kingsmeadow with all our fans," wrote the German international goalkeeper on Instagram.
The 2-0 (1-0) victory of their FC Chelsea against Manchester City on Sunday evening was the right setting, just about a month after the announcement of her renewed cancer diagnosis, the "fighter", as national coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg once said, returned in Chelsea's starting XI.
4,500 fans cheered the return of the 31-year-old goalkeeper in the sold-out arena in south-west London, and numerous stars such as Alexandra Popp and Lina Magull then congratulated them on social media.
"What the team needed"
Berger, who had already been diagnosed with an aggressive form of thyroid cancer in 2017, thanked "for the great support".
She gave free rein to her enormous anticipation of everything that is to come: "Bring on the rest of the season," wrote the European Championship runner-up, who impressed with strong scenes in goalkeeping on Sunday.
Berger played a big part in the English champions clinching three points for the first time in their second game of the season.
"She's a soldier," said Chelsea's team manager Emma Hayes with respect on club TV: "She's back, kept her box clean and gave exactly what the team needed." The German had the fight against the returned cancer Number three didn't have to be contested alone, after the shocking diagnosis Berger's hearts from the football world just flew to him.
Among other things, the national team had set a sign before their World Cup qualifier in Turkey, in which the players ran out in warm-up shirts with the message "We for you, Anne!".
Berger had already decided the first time, back in the dark days of autumn 2017 for her, to go public with her fight against the serious illness.
At that time she played for Birmingham City.
The day after the bad diagnosis, Berger actually went to training, two weeks later she underwent a six-and-a-half-hour operation.
"The feeling of falling asleep and not knowing what was happening was intense," she said in an interview last year.
This was followed by a highly unpleasant radio-iodine therapy.
The treatment was successful, on February 4, 2018 she returned to the field.
She has now succeeded once again.