North-south clash on Friday evening: FCB Women aiming to extend impressive Werder run

Having booked their place in the DFB Cup quarter-finals last weekend, it’s straight back to league action for FC Bayern Women. On Friday evening, head coach José Barcala’s side entertain SV Werder Bremen on Matchday 9 of the Google Pixel Women’s Bundesliga (18:30 CET). The north-south clash sees the league leaders come up against the team currently in fourth place in the table.

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The next test awaits the double winners under the lights at the FC Bayern Campus on Friday evening. Werder Bremen travel to Munich in fourth place – and with the confidence gained from a strong start to the campaign. Nevertheless, the Munich girls go into the meeting with momentum: they won 5-0 against VfB Stuttgart in their last home league game, followed by a 5-1 success at RB Leipzig. They then had to show patience in the DFB Cup round of 16 against Bayer 04 Leverkusen last Sunday, with Pernille Harder’s 73rd-minute penalty eventually earning the holders a 1-0 win and a spot in the last eight. 

The head-to-head record speaks for itself: FCB have won all 18 Bundesliga encounters between the two teams, scoring 60 goals and conceding just four. Bayern have kept a clean sheet in the last 13 – there’s never been a longer run of its kind by one team against another in Bundesliga history. The Munich club have also won their first eight league matches of the season, something they only previously achieved in the 2020/21 campaign, when they won the first 17.

🎙️ We spoke to loanee Marie Gmeineder ahead of the match: 

Opponents: Werder Bremen

Bremen have established themselves in the top half of the Bundesliga table with a healthy 16 points from eight matches. Head coach Fritzy Kromp’s charges won 4-3 in a thrilling contest at home to Freiburg on the last matchday, before also beating Hoffenheim 3-0 at home in a rearranged fixture. On the road, however, Werder have lost their last two league outings at Wolfsburg and Bayer Leverkusen. Like Bayern, the North German side are through to the quarter-finals of the cup. There were no goals in 90 minutes against Mainz last Sunday, before Sarah Gutmann’s brace in extra time secured a 2-0 victory.

In addition to their miserable record against FCB, Werder have never taken points from the defending champions in the top flight: 18 defeats, five goals scored and 71 conceded.

Team news

Barcala is still without Lena Oberdorf (knee) for the meeting with Bremen. Captain Glódís Perla Viggósdóttir (knee) and Klara Bühl (workload) are also ruled out. Goalkeeper Ena Mahmutovic is suspended following her red card against Leipzig.

Giulia Gwinn is set to return to the squad after her lateral collateral ligament tear, as is Sarah Zadrazil, who’s been strugling with muscular problems recently.

Pre-match thoughts

José Barcala: “Werder Bremen have had a very good season so far and are high up the table for good reason. They’re tactically quite a complex team: they can attack with three or four players in their build-up, switch up their formation and find ways through short combinations as well as long balls. On top of that, they’re very aggressive in the press and can defend at different heights. So for us, it’s not a case of reacting to every possible adjustment with a new plan.”

Edna Imade and Bernadette Amani were honoured in Barcelona on Monday: