FCB Women secure 2-0 home win against Essen

• Home win at the FC Bayern Campus
• Viggósdóttir and Damnjanović score
• Top of the table spot retained

The FC Bayern Women beat SGS Essen at home on Sunday afternoon. The team led by coach Alexander Straus clocked up a 2-0 victory over Essen to extend their unbeaten run to 31 league games. In an evenly balanced first half, the FCB Women were initially unable to convert any of their chances so the two sides went into half-time with the score at 0-0. After the restart, the deadlock was broken with a goal from Glodis Viggósdóttir. Jovana Damnjanović doubled the lead for the final score of 2-0.

That means the FCB Women are still top of the table in the Google pixel Women's Bundesliga after 14 games with 36 points. The lead over second-place Wolfsburg is one point.

Lots of changes to line-up

Compared with the 6-0 win against Kickers Offenbach in the DFB-Pokal Round of 16, head coach Alexander Straus made eight changes to his starting line-up. Only Linda Sembrant and Glódís Viggósdóttir in central defence plus Sydney Lohmann in midfield remained in the starting XI.

The FCB Women continue to have to manage without the long-term injured players Carolin Simon (cruciate), Weronika Zawistowska (cruciate), Cécilía Rán Rúnarsdóttir (knee), Ana María Guzmán (knee) and Magdalena Eriksson (metatarsal) as well as Tainara who is sidelined due to illness.

Evenly balanced first 45

The team from Essen built up pressure in the opening stages. On seven minutes, Linda Dallmann left the Essen defence standing with her dribbling skills before crossing to Lea Schüller but her header was off target. A shot on goal from Klara Bühl a few minutes later hit the left upright. SGS Essen created several dangerous chances and tested the Bayern defence and keeper Maria Grohs.

The Red and Whites broke through to the opposition goal shortly before half-time. Schüller again rose to head the ball but it ended up in the hands of keeper Sophia Winkler. A solo run on goal by Pernille Harder saw the Essen keeper parry the ball.

Impressive second half

The deadlock was broken on 55 minutes: Viggósdóttir headed home to make it 1-0 from a free kick taken by Klara Bühl. The FC Bayern Women then dominated proceedings and Schüller had another opportunity to score with a header from a Katharina Naschenweng corner.

A Klara Bühl free kick on 76 minutes flew just past the left-hand post. The result was settled three minutes later: Viggósdóttir played a long ball to Schüller. She squared it into the penalty area for Jovana Damnjanović to slot the ball home unchallenged.

International break and Pokal  

The FC Bayern Women now go into the international break. That will be followed for the Munich women by a game in Jena. The quarter-final tie in the DFB-Pokal will be played there on 5 March. The next game in the Google Pixel Women's Bundesliga on 9 March is against third-placed Eintracht Frankfurt. The kick-off on Matchday 15 is at 13:00 CET.