Brilliance cancelled out: What FCB Women take away from UWCL opener Man City

FC Bayern Women had Manchester City on the ropes for 60, even 70 minutes. The Munich girls led 2-0, and played with courage, intensity and the clarity that would be classed as mature if it hadn't disappeared in the closing stages. Then came the late equaliser. The first Champions League match in Unterhaching ended in a 2-2 draw and probably left José Barcala's side feeling shortchanged. 

🎟️ Tickets for the clashes against Real Madrid and FC Barcelona can be requested here!

Start as intended

FCB Women didn’t begin cautiously against City, but with the determination of a side who wanted to make it clear to the English champions that they hadn’t come for a polite introduction. The visitors were given barely any time to pick out the first pass, let alone the second. After 11 minutes, this effort was rewarded when Linda Dallmann won the ball and set up Giulia Gwinn, who kept her cool in front of City goalkeeper Ayaka Yamashita and slotted in the opening goal. 1-0, all going to plan.

Bayern played with a mixture of brawn and brains. Dallmann was always there when the ball was loose, Pernille Harder popped up between the lines as if she had a permanent residence there, and Klara Bühl provided pace and width on the wing. Time and again, the Munich girls won the ball and knew what to do with it.

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“That was one of the best halves since I’ve been here,” said head coach Barcala after the final whistle. “The first 45 minutes were really special in the way we pressed, the aggression we showed. It’s not easy to press Manchester City, when the goalkeeper is involved in the play and they create overloads. I think we played at a very high level in this period.”

Harder makes it two, City get one back

The second goal logically followed, albeit with a big helping hand from the visitors. With 28 minutes gone, Harder clipped the ball into the danger area from the right flank. Kerstin Casparij tried to clear it but turned the cross into her own net. The German double winners could have even led by more at this point, all they were missing was the precision in the final pass or shot, which would’ve made a very good position out of a good first half. “I think we should’ve won the game,” said Jovana Damnjanović afterwards. “We were the better team and created a lot of chances, especially in the first half. We just have to get the reward for that.”

For Manchester City, one moment was enough. Shortly before the break, Beth Mead pulled a goal back to make it 2-1. So Bayern went in at half-time with a lead, but not with the reassuring feeling of having already done half the job.

Bayern remain on top

FCB did not lose control immediately after the break. For over an hour, Barcala’s side were a match for City and even forced the WSL champions into positions that they presumably didn’t want to be in: behind the ball and without any real idea of how to get back in front of it. However, the balance gradually shifted as the Citizens upped the pressure and took control of possession, forcing the hosts to do more running. The gaps became bigger, and the shape became more open.

It was in this phase that Ena Mahmutovic stepped into the spotlight. After her foul on Aoba Fujino, referee Olatz Rivera Olmedo pointed to the spot, Khadija Shaw stepped up to take the penalty and the Bayern No. 1 saved it. The lead was preserved – at least for now. Barcala expected City’s late surge. “We knew that Manchester City always finish games strongly and have scored a lot of goals in the last 20 minutes. We anticipated a very difficult second half.”

Final minutes tell their own story

Sloppiness started to creep into Bayern’s play now: a simple misplaced pass here, a step too late there, pressing that no longer started or finished together. Dallmann summarised: “Our performance in the first half in particular was very good. However, we dropped the intensity a bit in the second half. We made too many and too simple mistakes. You’re then going to concede goals at this level. We need to learn from this.”

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At this level, a drop of just a few percentage points is immediately plain to see. In the 86th minute, City capitalised one of these moments as Carlotta Wamser was left in too much space on the edge of the box, stepped inside and fired in the equaliser.

Dropped points

“At the end of the day, we played our game for large parts, dominated and scored two goals,” said Gwinn. “Then we just lacked the maturity to see it through to the end. We literally invited them on with our mistakes. Suddenly we were playing long balls and got nervous. It feels like two points dropped.”

Bianca Rech, women’s football director, also described mixed emotions: “I’m proud, particularly of how we performed in the first half. In my view, that was really excellent. But in the second half, we didn’t respond well to what Manchester City did. We weren’t sharp enough in front of goal and lost the momentum as a result.”

Start offers encouragement – and lessons

FC Bayern Women take away more than a 2-2 draw from this evening. The high press worked, the team won a large number of duels and created several chances. The next challenge is to maintain this quality over a longer stretch. “We must learn to play at our best for 90 minutes,” said Rech. “We’re not quite managing that yet. That last piece is still lacking: producing a consistent performance over 90 minutes and not giving the opponents any space, any time to breathe. We did exactly that – and then let the game slip.”

The first 60 minutes or so in Unterhaching showed what’s possible. The closing minutes showed where there’s still work to be done. This team can compete with the best. Now they have to learn to bring these evenings to a conclusion. Because for a long time they were the author of this story, but it was City who crucially rewrote the final lines.

🎟️ Tickets for the clashes against Real Madrid and FC Barcelona can already be requested via this link!