Second place in the women’s Bundesliga does not automatically qualify for the group stage of the Champions League. FC Bayern has to make the detour via Real Sociedad San Sebastián. In the first leg in the second division of the Spanish league, the Munich team didn’t play completely convincingly, but the result was right.
The footballers of FC Bayern Munich have the best chance of moving into the group stage of the Champions League. The team led by top scorer Lea Schüller won 1-0 (1-0) at Real Sociedad San Sebastián in an entertaining first leg of the second qualifying round. In front of 11,500 spectators, Schüller scored the goal of the day against the Spanish runners-up in the 45th minute.
The second leg will take place next Thursday (7 p.m.) on the Bayern campus. Three days after the bumpy 0-0 start to the Bundesliga at Eintracht Frankfurt, the team of new coach Alexander Straus, driven primarily by English European champions Georgia Stanway and Sydney Lohmann, created a number of chances at the end of the first half. Linda Dallmann hit the post.
On a pass from her national team colleague Klara Bühl, Schüller then scored the well-deserved 1-0. Germany’s “soccer player of the year” missed the great chance to make it 2-0 in the 58th minute. The German runners-up were lucky when San Sebastián’s captain Nerea Eizagirre hit the crossbar shortly afterwards and Amaiur Sarriegi Isasa just missed the equalizer (89′).
Despite the victory and their superiority, the Munich team did not play completely convincingly, as they did in Frankfurt. Especially in front of the opposing goal they were too harmless. Straus’ team was also vulnerable on the counterattack. “Basically we’re happy about the better starting position in the second leg. We definitely had a few hundred percent chances. If we create them, it will be easier as the game progresses. We were under a lot of pressure until the 93rd minute,” said Bühl.
The Munich team is the only German team to play the intermediate round in the premier class after Frankfurt was eliminated in the first round. As German champions, VfL Wolfsburg is set for the group stage. Last season, the Bayern women failed in the quarter-finals of the Champions League at Paris Saint-Germain. The Champions League final will take place in Eindhoven on 3 or 4 June 2023.
