Fresh from beating Duisburg in the Google Pixel Bundesliga on Sunday, FC Bayern Women kick off their UEFA Women’s Champions League campaign on Wednesday when they host Roma at the FC Bayern Campus at 18:45 CET. Read up on the stats ahead of the game, plus which familiar faces we’ll see in the Italians’ squad.
1. First encounter
Wednesday’s meeting with the Italian champions is Bayern’s first competitive fixture against Roma and therefore first in the Champions League. It is also Bayern’s first Champions League game against a team from Italy.
2. Clinical Bayern
The clubs from Munich and Rome were both involved in last season’s Champions League, with both adventures also ending in the quarter-finals. Bayern showed they were clinical in front of goal in Europe, ranking second among the 16 teams for chances taken at 21.1 percent. Alexander Straus’s team were finding the back of the net with less than every fifth shot on average, ending the competition with 15 goals. Roma were seventh with a conversion rate of only 14.7 percent, scoring 17 goals.
3. Reunions
Saki Kumagai was part of Bayern’s title winning team last season but now represents Roma.
Saki Kumagai spent the last two years at Bayern, scoring 14 goals (two in the Champions League) across 65 appearances in red and white. The 33-year-old swapped Bavaria for Italy in the summer and has since scored two goals. Roma goalkeeper Tinja-Riikka Korpela and midfielder Laura Feiersinger also have Bayern pasts.
4. Clash of league leaders
Bayern’s recent 2-1 win over Wolfsburg sent them top of the Bundesliga table. The defending champions are still unbeaten this season in the league and DFB Cup. Roma are also top of the standings in Italy, with Alessandro Spunga’s team winning all seven of their fixtures so far in Serie A Femminile. They have scored 21 goals in the process. Like Bayern, the Italian champions also had a top-of-the-table clash a fortnight ago, beating second-placed Juventus 3-1.
5. Good home record
Georgia Stanway and her team have so far won every one of their Champions League group games at the FC Bayern Campus.
Bayern’s record at home in the Champions League group stage (introduced for 2021/22) is six played, six wins. The sole defeat at home in the last 13 Champions League fixtures came in March 2022’s quarter-final against Paris Saint-Germain (2-1).
Bayern won their last home game against Duisburg in the Bundesliga:
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