FCB Women beaten by Wolfsburg in DFB Cup final

FC Bayern Women lost 2-0 to VfL Wolfsburg in the DFB Cup final on Thursday. Jule Brand gave VfL an early lead after 14 minutes, which Dominique Janssen doubled shortly before half-time.

Among the crowd of 44,400 at the sold-out RheinEnergieStadion in Cologne were representatives from FCB including president Herbert Hainer, CEO Jan Christian-Dreesen, CFO Michael Diederich, honorary president Uli Hoeneß and director of youth development Jochen Sauer.

Harder and Bühl start

After the 2-1 win at Bayer 04 Leverkusen in the Google Pixel Women's Bundesliga last weekend, which sealed the league title for Bayern Women, coach Alexander Straus made two changes to his starting line-up. Klara Bühl and Pernille Harder came in for Linda Dallmann and Sydney Lohmann.

Debut for new home shirt

The women had the honour of being the first FC Bayern team to wear the German record champions' new home shirt for the 2024/25 season. Buy it here in the online store.

Behind at the break 

It was a hard-fought contest from the start with a lot of tackles. The She-Wolves took the lead with the first real chance of the game, Brand taking aim in the 14th minute and beating Bayern goalkeeper Maria Luisa Grohs with a bouncing shot from around 20 metres. VfL were also the more threatening team after that, with Grohs twice producing strong saves to prevent Lena Oberdorf from scoring a second goal. Harder registered the first attempt on goal for the Munich girls in the 36th minute, but her shot from the edge of the penalty area didn't trouble Merle Frohms in the Wolfsburg goal. Shortly before half-time, the cup holders made it 2-0 through Janssen, the centre-back rising highest to head in a corner.

Hard-fought second half

It was initially a similar story after the restart, although Bayern began to create more chances as the half wore on. In the 58th minute, Lea Schüller got her head to a corner but Frohms was able to parry. Six minutes later, Bühl had a go from distance but again the Wolfsburg custodian preserved her team's lead. In the closing stages, substitute Lohmann curled the ball just wide and Carolin Simon also came off the bench, making her comeback from a cruciate ligament tear. Despite a battling display, it finished in a 2-0 defeat for Bayern.

Home match against Nürnberg and away to Hoffenheim

There are two matches left in the Women's Bundesliga for the German champions. This Sunday, 12 May, they welcome 1. FC Nürnberg to the FC Bayern Campus (kick-off 14:00 CEST). The final fixture of the season takes place a week later, on Monday 20 May at 15:30 CEST, at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim.