Bayern women reach Champions League semi-finals against Manchester United

FC Bayern’s footballers came close to scoring so often in the second half. So often they played the ball too much or too complicated towards the goal. And time was slowly running out for them in the quarter-final second leg of the Champions League against Manchester United. It was fitting that after all the attempts from the game and a lot of corners, a standard ended the desperation that was gradually spreading – and brought the Munich team into the top four clubs in the most important European competition for the third time in their history and for the first time since 2021.

Corner Carolin Simon, header Glodis Viggosdottir, after this combination it was finally 1:1 in the 81st minute, which made the total from the first and second leg 4:3 for FC Bayern. The captain herself, like coach José Barcala, urged calm. But arrogance did not break out, on the contrary. Before United could gather themselves, Bayen followed up in the 84th minute: offensive player Melvine Malard was able to clear Viggosdottir’s next header on the line, but then Linda Dallmann shot the ball into the goal in front of 25,000 spectators in the Munich Arena to make it 2-1.

The day before the game, Giulia Gwinn gave an insight into the inner workings of the German champions at the press conference. Walking onto this pitch is special every time. “It’s possible that the first few minutes are associated with excitement,” said Gwinn. “What sets our team apart is that we can take away this excitement very quickly – when you look left and right and see what good players you have next to you.” And when her team played in the arena for the seventh time on Wednesday evening, what the 26-year-old had described happened.

When less than ten minutes had passed, defender Carolin Simon had already launched into a tirade of abuse. Shortly afterwards she came running to the sidelines and shouted, gesticulating towards the dugout, where assistant coach Clara Schöne jumped up and had a lively debate with Simon. In addition to the two, Pernille Harder also had her own energetic debate with head coach José Barcala. Harder is generally difficult to upset, and her violent reaction alone was an indication of how bumpy the Munich team had gotten off to in this game.

Bayern can’t get Melvine Malard under control at first, and she makes it 1-0 early on

Instead of taking an early lead through Harder like in the first leg, they ran after United, who applied more pressure and pace. In the fourth minute, Hinata Miyazawa moved down the right and passed to Malard, whose long-range shot was deflected to the side by Ena Mahmutovic. Dallmann could have prevented the lively exchange between her teammates and the coaches shortly afterwards, but her shot flew past the right post. In the eleventh minute, the visitors sent Malard down the right again and Vanessa Gilles tried to stop the Frenchwoman. But first Gilles and then Mahmutovic, who rushed out to pass the ball, were too timid. The goalkeeper hit the ball and Malard was able to calmly slot in to make it 1-0.

Bayern simply couldn’t get them under control and after a quarter of an hour Malard tried from distance. Manchester controlled the game in this phase and had more possession of the ball than Munich – whose game is actually designed for exactly that. But whatever they tried, they didn’t succeed. Also because United had obviously learned from the first leg at Old Trafford, gave Bayern less space and had Harder in particular much better under control. Defensively, the hosts often appeared disorganized. However, the break changed the balance of power in Fröttmaning. Harder came close to equalizing twice, and Gwinn also came close. Manchester acted more passively.

This decisive goal in the semi-final became more and more apparent with every minute. Until finally, in the final phase, another statement from Giulia Gwinn came true: “I had a good feeling in training, we are very, very ready.”