45 BL games without defeat: FCB Women celebrate home win and new Bundesliga record

• New Bundesliga record
• Goals from Tanikawa, Gilles & Bühl
• Zadrazil celebrates her comeback

FC Bayern Women are celebrating their third win in three games and have set a new record! Thanks to their 4–1 (2–0) win over SC Freiburg in the Google Pixel Women’s Bundesliga on Sunday afternoon, coach José Barcala’s side have now gone 45 league matches without defeat – a new league record.

Momoko Tanikawa (18th minute) put the Munich side 1–0 up with a stunning goal in glorious summer weather at the FC Bayern Campus stadium. Shortly before half-time, centre-back Vanessa Gilles (43') doubled the lead. After the break, Luca Birkholz (64') pulled one back for the visitors before Klara Bühl (73') and Tanikawa again (90'+1) wrapped up the 4–1 victory.

Sustainability Action Day

Under the slogan ‘A good game together’, the two teams held up a banner before the match to send a joint message in support of sustainable development in football.

Two goals in the first half

The Bayern women got off to a good start and dominated the game from the off. In the 14th minute, following a short corner, Bernadette Amani narrowly missed a goal-bound cross from the left by Linda Dallmann at the far post. Tanikawa then opened the scoring shortly afterwards (18') with a truly spectacular strike. The Japan international saw that goalkeeper Anna Reimann was too far off her line and, from just behind the halfway line, scored with a stunning long-range lob over the keeper to make it 1–0.

The Munich side continued to dominate play, but in the 33rd minute, Ena Mahmutovic had to be on her toes to prevent the equaliser by tipping a cross from Emma Memminger over the bar. Six minutes later, Giulia Gwinn found herself in a promising position but was denied by Reimann. Gilles fared better in the 43rd minute, when, from a central position, she turned in Bühl’s free-kick from midfield to make it 2–0.

Intensive second half

After the break, the pattern was much the same as it had been for much of the first half. In the 52nd minute, Bühl found herself completely unmarked in front of Reimann following a one-two with Pernille Harder, but the keeper came out on top in the one-on-one. Shortly afterwards, a deflected shot from substitute Sarah Mattner rattled the crossbar.

In the 60th minute, Freiburg pulled one back to make it 2–1 with their first truly dangerous move – a swift counter-attack led by Birkholz – which meant we were in for a nail-biting finish. But the Munich side refused to be thrown off course and restored their two-goal lead on 76 minutes. After sprinting across the entire pitch, Bühl rounded goalkeeper Reimann and slotted the ball home to make it 3–1. Tanikawa then wrapped up the 4–1 win with a goal following a counter-attack. There was also good news in the closing stages of the match for Sarah Zadrazil, who made her comeback 348 days after tearing her ACL in the match against SC Freiburg – against the very same Breisgau side, of all teams.

In Leverkusen and at home to Köln

The reigning German champions are back in action in the Women’s Bundesliga on Monday, 14 September, with an away game at Bayer 04 Leverkusen. Kick-off is at 18:00 CEST at the Ulrich-Haberland Stadion. Five days later, on Saturday, 19 September, at 14:00 CEST, the Bayern women will then host 1. FC Köln at the FC Bayern Campus stadium.