FC Bayern Women host promoted Hamburger SV in first meeting for over 13 years

One highlight follows another: just four days after the Champions League clash at Atlético Madrid, FC Bayern Women are back in the spotlight on home turf, where they welcome Hamburger SV on Matchday 13 of the Google Pixel Women’s Bundesliga. Kick-off is at 14:00 CET at the FC Bayern Campus.

Latest news from Bayern

FC Bayern Women confirmed that they’ll be top at the halfway point of the Bundesliga campaign with a comfortable 5-0 victory at Eintracht Frankfurt last Sunday, with Klara Bühl, Pernille Harder, Alara Şehitler and Jovana Damnjanović with a brace on the scoresheet. Bayern are in excellent form at present: 34 points from the first 12 games of the season represents one of the team’s best ever starts – only in the 2020/21 campaign did they have more points at this stage (36). The Bavarians’ attacking firepower is particularly impressing. They’ve scored at least four goals in the last six Bundesliga matches – only VfL Wolfsburg achieved a run like this in the 2019/20 season.

Bayern had to settle for a 2-2 draw in Wednesday’s Champions League match against Atlético. José Barcala’s side fell behind in the 13th minute to a penalty, but turned the game around in the second half thanks to a brace from Harder. However, the Spanish side levelled late in the 88th minute.

Opponents: Hamburger SV

Like the men’s team, the Hanseatic club’s women celebrated promotion to the Bundesliga last season, returning to the German top flight after a 13-year hiatus. That makes this season a major new beginning for HSV, but it’s not been going as hoped for Liese Brancao’s team. They’ve managed just one win and four draws from 13 matches, and currently sit second from bottom with seven points. The Red Shorts also have the leakiest defence in the league with 29 goals conceded. In their most recent game on Monday night, they went down 4-1 to 1. FC Köln.

However, they did pull off an upset in the DFB Cup round of 16, beating Bayer 04 Leverkusen 4-2 on penalties to reach the quarter-finals, where they’ll again come up against Bayern. This will be the teams’ first meeting since 2012. Overall the two sides have met on 10 occasions in the Bundesliga, with FCB winning six, Hamburg winning two and two ending in draws.

Team news

Barcala remains without long-term absentees Sarah Zadrazil and Lena Oberdorf (both cruciate ligament), but Georgia Stanway and Katharina Naschenweng are available again after missing the trip to Madrid through illness. Natalia Padilla Bidas is also recovering well and could be involved on Sunday.

Pre-match quotes

José Barcala: “We’re expecting a very compact HSV team, similar to the games against Nürnberg or Leipzig. They’ll try to keep the space between the lines tight and look for opportunities in transition or from set pieces. For us it’ll be important to find the right positions and distances in order to create chances and get into our flow. At the same time, we need to be alert in defence to stop their counters.”

Stine Ballisager: “We want to dominate from the beginning and impose our game. HSV, like Union Berlin, are a promoted team who we should by no means underestimate. We expect Hamburg to defend very compactly and deep, and do their best to make life difficult for us. We’re looking forward to playing at home and absolutely want to keep the three points in Munich.”

What happened in the match against Atlético Madrid: