At home to SGS Essen: Introducing FCB Women's DFB Cup semi-final opponents

FC Bayern Women will host SGS Essen in the semi-finals of the DFB Cup between 4 and 6 April – with a clear target. It’s the last step on the road to the final at Cologne’s RheinEnergieSTADION on 14 May 2026.

The holders continued their title defence with a comfortable 3-0 victory against Hamburger SV in the quarter-finals on Wednesday evening. The draw for the semis has handed José Barcala’s side a first home tie in this season’s cup competition, following trips to Dortmund, Ingolstadt and then Hamburg in the earlier rounds.

FC Carl Zeiss Jena take on record cup winners VfL Wolfsburg in the other semi-final.

Essen make statement in quarter-final

Impressive in quarter-finals: Essen celebrated a 1-0 win at home to SV Werder Bremen on Wednesday. | © Imago

Essen caused a minor upset on their way to the last four of the cup. Ella Touon’s strike earned head coach Heleen Jaques’ team a 1-0 win over last year’s runners-up SV Werder Bremen at the Stadion an der Hafenstraße. SGS previously saw off Kickers Offenbach 7-0 in the first round and Turbine Potsdam 1-0 in the round of 16.

Special meeting for Linda Dallmann

Well acquainted with the opposition: Linda Dallmann spent eight years at Essen. | © Imago

The encounter with Essen is not only an attractive one from a sporting point of view, but also has a particularly emotional dimension to it. SGS are the only purely women’s football club left in the Bundesliga and have had a reputation as a breeding ground for talent for many years, something that Bayern have also benefited from in recent years. In Linda Dallmann and the currently injured Lena Oberdorf, two current German internationals and key figures for the Munich girls spent formative years in Essen. In addition, Kassandra Potsi moved to the Bavarian state capital from the North Rhine-Westphalia club last summer.

Bastion of the Women’s Bundesliga

Bayern beat Essen 4-1 in their last meeting in the first half of the Bundesliga season. | © Imago

After their formation in 1973, Essen gradually developed from a small women’s football department to an inherent part of the Bundesliga. SGS’s biggest successes include reaching the DFB Cup finals in 2014 and 2020 as well as a fourth-place finish in the Bundesliga in the 2018/19 campaign. As the ‘last woman standing’ in a league now dominated by men’s clubs, Essen are a symbol of tradition, persistence and pioneering work in women’s football.

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