5 facts on Bayern’s Women’s Champions League meeting with Ajax

The UEFA Women’s Champions League continues on Thursday with Matchday 3 of the group stage as FC Bayern Women host Ajax at the Campus. Having beaten Bayer Leverkusen 3-0 in the Bundesliga on Monday, Alexander Straus’s team are looking for their next three points in Europe to take them top of the table. Here’s all the stats and facts ahead of facing Ajax.

1. Impressive home form

Die Frauen boast a strong run at home in the Champions League, where they are unbeaten in the last five and have in fact won 12 of their last 14 European fixtures on Munich soil. The sole defeat in that run was a narrow one against Paris Saint-Germain in the 2021/22 quarter-finals.

2. Bayern historically ahead

The reigning German and Dutch champions have only faced each other twice before in the Champions League, with Bayern coming out on top in both legs of the 2020/21 round of 32. FCB prevailed 3-1 in Amsterdam before a 3-0 triumph back in Bavaria.

3. Ajax struggling on the European road

The Dutch side kicked off this Champions League campaign with a 2-0 win at home to PSG but were then beaten 3-0 away at Roma. Ajax have struggled historically on the road in Europe, losing four out of five Champions League away fixtures. The Amsterdam club have scored only two goals and conceded 18 in those games, also failing to score in the last three.

4. Two first-half teams

Bayern have netted three times in this year’s competition, with all of them coming in the first half of games. The two goals on Matchday 1 against Roma came in the 20th and 45th minutes, with the winner in Paris falling inside 21 minutes. Suzanne Bakker’s side have had a similar pattern to their play, scoring both of their goals so far in the opening half. They did, however, also strike in the second half of their qualifiers against Zürich.

5. Leuchter the big threat

Ajax’s Romée Leuchter has netted eight goals in Ajax’s domestic league campaign, placing the 22-year-old Dutch striker second in the Eredivisie scoring chart. In Europe, she has so far only struck in the qualifiers, but got five there with a hat-trick in the first leg against Zürich before two more in the return fixture as Ajax booked their place in the group stage.