Mission title defence: FC Bayern Women going for double against Wolfsburg

Off to Cologne to defend the title! FC Bayern Women face VfL Wolfsburg in the final of the DFB Cup on Thursday at the RheinEnergieSTADION. Kick-off against the 11-time cup winners is at 16:00 CEST. The Munich girls are aiming to clinch the third cup in the club’s history and thus complete a second successive domestic double having already won the Bundesliga title. The match will be broadcast by ZDF and Sky in Germany.

🏆 How the two teams got here:

Latest news from Bayern

The last home match of the season ended in a sea of celebration, red-and-white flags and moving emotions on Saturday afternoon. In front of a sell-out crowd, FCB Women lifted the Meisterschale following the clash against Eintracht Frankfurt. The fourth title in a row crowned an impressive Bundesliga campaign – but there was no time to rest. On Sunday, head coach José Barcala and his team already turned their attention to the next big challenge: the final of the DFB Cup. Bayern can make history by not only successfully defending the cup but also the double.

The path to the final has been marked by performances that have highlighted the class and maturity of this team. The Munich girls have not conceded a single goal in their four games in this cup campaign – a clear signal of their defensive solidity. A 2-0 win at Dortmund set them on their way, followed by comfortable 3-0 wins at Ingolstadt and Hamburger SV, further reinforcing Bayern’s ambition to again compete for top spot in this competition.

In the semi-final at home, Barcala’s side produced another strong display to seal their ticket to Cologne as goals from Momoko Tanikawa, Pernille Harder and a brace from Edna Imade gave the holders a fully deserved 4-0 victory over SGS Essen. So FCB Women are in the cup final for the third year in a row – and now have a big chance to cap off an already outstanding season.

Opponents: Wolfsburg

Wolfsburg’s road to the final began with a storming 11-0 win at ATS Buntentor. That was followed by a comfortable 3-1 victory over Bundesliga rivals SC Freiburg at the AOK Stadon, underlining VfL’s role as favourites in the competition. In the last eight, the She-Wolves edged out Eintracht Frankfurt 1-0 to progress to the semi-finals.

The She-Wolves were pushed all the way by FC Carl Zeiss Jena. For 120 minutes, Stephan Lerch’s side toiled at the Ernst-Abbe-Sportfeld in a tactical, patient contest in which the two teams largely cancelled each other out. Eventually the Lower Saxony outfit settled it 5-4 on penalties and booked their place in the final.

This will be the third meeting between Bayern and Wolfsburg in the DFB Cup final. The She-Wolves came out on top in 2018 and 2024, but the balance of power has shifted significantly in the last few years. Munich won both league encounters this season as well as the last two Supercup showdowns.

🗞️ Ahead of the clash with Wolfsburg, we spoke to Klara Bühl about the final in Cologne: 

Team news

Barcala is still without long-term absentees Sarah Zadrazil and Lena Oberdorf (both cruciate ligament). Jovana Damnjanović is in individual training and won’t feature in the final games of the season.

Pre-match quotes

José Barcala: “We’re up against opponents in Wolfsburg who we know very well from the number of meetings in the past. They can bring a lot of different styles of play onto the pitch in 90 minutes and are very well organised in their press. We face an aggressive team who always ask everything of us. Our ambition is clear: we want to put in a really good performance and earn the win. There are no real favourites in a final, in my view. It’s about who understands the match better, who makes the right adjustments at the right moment and sees their plan through. We’re looking forward to this challenge.”

Linda Dallmann: “We want to round off this season with a trophy in our hands. The Champions League exit hurt us a lot, it was a hard moment for all of us. Wolfsburg are still the face of this competition to some extent because of their past, but we want to keep making our mark more strongly in this cup. We’re all incredibly excited to be on the pitch here tomorrow. We want to go out there with joy, courage and passion, and show our best football.”

👀 These players have played for both Wolfsburg and FCB Women: :