The countdown is on. On Wednesday evening (20:00 CET, live on Sport1) FC Bayern Women play the second leg of their Women’s Champions League quarter-final against Paris Saint-Germain. fcbayern.com spoke to full-back Leonie Maier on the way to the French capital on Tuesday to get her thoughts on the match at the Parc des Princes, where Bayern president Uli Hoeneß will be in the stands keeping his fingers crossed.
Interview with Leonie Maier:
Leo, are the nerves starting to tingle yet?
Maier: “The excitement is huge. It’s a big match. We’ve put ourselves in a good position with the 1-0 win in the first leg but we know we were a bit lucky. Paris are a really strong team so we need to put in the same battling performance that we did in the first game. If we do that then we can get through.”
It’s your fifth game in 15 days. How tired do you feel?
Maier: “Of course you feel some strain but I think when we go out on the pitch tomorrow – in that stadium with so many spectators – then you can forget that. Your emotions take over and the legs run automatically.”
How excited are you about playing at the Parc des Princes?
Maier: “It’s certainly something special but at the end of the day it doesn’t matter which stadium we play in. It’s a Champions League quarter-final and that’s awesome!”
You’ve touched on the first leg. What can you take from that into the return leg?
Maier: “We saw how strong Paris are on the counter-attack, so we must try to avoid giving the ball away cheaply. And we also saw that we put in a fantastic team performance, and that you get rewards if you keep fighting. We never hid away and kept putting our bodies on the line. We want to carry this attitude into the game on Wednesday. We’ll give everything and we know if we keep a clean sheet we’re through.”
At the Grünwalder Stadion you had the full support of the fans. On Wednesday the crowd will be against you. How do you deal with that?
Maier: “Personally I enjoy playing against a crowd. It gives me extra motivation and drives me on even more.”
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