Another stadium highlight is on the program for the FC Bayern Munich soccer players: on Thursday evening (6.45 p.m., Dazn) they will play in the Champions League preliminary round at FC Barcelona. “The anticipation is of course very great,” says Bayern attacker Lea Schüller. The first two matchdays in the European top flight were more like everyday football for the team with narrow victories against Rosengard and Benfica Lisbon. In the duel against the Catalans, however, a decision should now be on the horizon as to who will win Group D.
More than 40,000 tickets have already been sold for the game. The FC Bayern team will play the second leg against Spain’s ensemble on December 7th in Munich’s Allianz Arena. “These will both be highlight games,” says Schüller happily. It will be the second appearance for the women’s team in the living room of Manuel Neuer & Co. after the quarter-final defeat by Paris St. Germain in March, and on this occasion Bayern’s women’s record of 13,000 spectators is to be surpassed; the advance sale is running.
The FC Barcelona women’s team, which, like Bayern, has six points from two matches, is unsurpassed as a crowd attraction. 91,648 visitors set a world record in women’s football in the semi-final first leg against VfL Wolfsburg at the Camp Nou in April. The Munich women can also draw courage from their brief preparation after the European Championship. In August, FC Bayern won a test against Barça 2-1 – at that time Munich’s efficiency trumped the playful superiority of the 2021 Champions League winner run,” warned coach Alexander Straus, who rates Barcelona as “perhaps the best team in the world at the moment”. But even at Barcelona he recognizes “small weaknesses that we can exploit”. The Norwegian has only been in charge of the Bayern women since the summer and, according to his own statements, is still looking for “stability and identity”. “Exactly such games” as against FC Barcelona are needed for development. “We want to prove ourselves in games like this and see how far we’ve come.” In addition to the long-term injuries, attacker Jovana Damnjanovic, who is suffering from a torn muscle fibre, will also be absent. Sydney Lohmann and Ivana Rudelic are back in training.