"It's hard to take when you invest so much but go home without any points. It was clear to us beforehand that we had to run a lot to get a result," said Pätzold: "We defended passionately in the first half and had a phase where we threatened up front at times. We gave little away and wanted to be more courageous in the second half. But the individual class of Bayern is so good that they used the space for their accurate attacking game. Unfortunately we lacked a bit of power up front."
Compared with the 6-0 victory at home to Werder Bremen to which so, Pätzold made three changes to his starting line-up. The injured Lilla Turanyi (not in squad) was replaced by Melissa Friedrich making her first start this term a week after her first appearance of the season. Karolina Lea Vilhjalmsdottir replaced the injured Shen Menglu (torn cruciate) and Delice Boboy came in for the suspended Caroline Kehrer. Vanessa Haim, sidelined for months with back problems, was in the squad for the first time this season.
After a minutes silence for the former Germany international and later manager of the Germany women's team Doris Fitschen, who passed away recently, the reigning German champions took control from the start. The Leverkusen Women were pressed early by the Bayern Munich team but initially succeeded in keeping the German champions away from their penalty area with counter pressing. FC Bayern only had their first corner on 13 minutes but there was no threat on the Leverkusen goal. And the first shot from FCB also failed to find the target. The shot from Julia Zigiotti Olme from 16 metres out went well wide of the Leverkusen goal. The Pätzold team had their first effort on goal on 24 minutes. Then a low shot from Kristin Kögel was turned away for a corner by the Bayern keeper Ena Mahmutovic and nothing followed from that.
The first real danger to Leverkusen goal came on 31 minutes. A cross from Giulia Gwinn found Pernille Harder at the far post. Her header was parried by Frederike Repohl with an impressive reflex save. FC Bayern grew ever stronger winning corner after corner and that made it more and more difficult for the Bayer 04 Women to break free. But the visitors playing in white resisted the pressure of the team under head coach Alexander Straus with courage and passion. The Bayer 04 Women deservedly went into half-time with the scoreline at 0-0.
The second half began as the first half ended. FC Bayern had more of the play without being able to exploit it to the maximum. The Leverkusen Women again and again closed down space and also created their own chance. The shot from Boboy after an impressive move on 50 minutes was hit too close to the keeper allowing Mahmutovic to make the save.
The Straus team struck on 56 minutes. Minutes after coming off the bench, substitute Lea Schüller broke down the right and crossed where Harder laid the ball off to Klara Bühl. And her shot into the right corner of the net gave Repohl no chance. Ten minutes later, Bühl set up Schüller and the FC Bayern centre forward also leaving Repohl helpless as her shot found the back of the net. Katharina Piljic made a comeback after a long injury lay-off in the closing stages but she was unable to prevent the 2-0 win for FC Bayern.
There is another break in the Google Pixel Women's Bundesliga next weekend. The Werkself are back in action on Monday, 14 April (18:00 CEST, live on Sport1, MagentaSport and DAZN). The Black and Reds play FC Köln at the Ulrich Haberland Stadium to end Matchday 19. Tickets for the game are available HERE from the Bayer 04 online shop.
Match stats:
Bayern Munich: Mahmutovic – Gwinn, Viggósdóttir (Ulbrich 82'), Eriksson, Simon (Schüller 55') – Lohmann (Kett 55'), Sehitler, Zadrazil, Zigiotti Olme, Bühl (Dallmann 77') – Harder (Caruso 77')
Bayer 04: Repohl – Merino Gonzalez, Ostermeier, Friedrich (Piljic 81’), Kögel – Zdebel, Vidal – Bender (Hansen 77’), Vilhjalmsdottir (Grant 66’) – Kramer (Mickenhagen 77’), Boboy
Goals: 1-0 Bühl (56’), 2-0 Schüller (68’)
Yellow cards: Gwinn - Kögel, Pätzold
Referee: Dr Riem Hussein (Bad Harzburg)
Attendance: 2,500 at the FC Bayern Campus (sold out)
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