Bayern Munich started their final stretch of games of the calendar year after the November/December international break. First up was Eintracht Frankfurt away, a tough opponent who had already defeated
VfL Wolfsburg this season. Frankfurt were in the top echelons of the Bundesliga coming into the game with 19 points from 10 games.
Coach José Barcala had to make do without Georgia Stanway, who missed the game through illness, along with Natalia Patilla Bidas. As a result, Momoko Tanikawa started in the pivot alongside Arianna Caruso.
The Bayern XI was as follows:
Ena Mahmutović – Giulia Gwinn, Glódis Perla Viggósdóttir, Magdalena Eriksson, Franziska Kett – Arianna Caruso, Momoko Tanikawa – Linda Dallmann, Pernille Harder, Klara Bühl – Jovana Damnjanović
The Match
Bayern came out swinging from the kickoff whistle and spent most of the opening minutes in Frankfurt’s half. It didn’t take long for them to open the scoring; only eleven minutes had been played when Dallmann threaded the ball across the pitch to find Bühl in the box, and the birthday girl made no mistake from close range.
The goal woke Frankfurt up, though, and Bayern found themselves suddenly pegged back a bit, getting a lucky break when Nicole Anyomi rattled the crossbar. Bayern needed to shift the momentum, and they eventually did on the stroke of halftime. Harder made a strong run from the right side and squared it to Damnjanović to tap in from close range.
With barely seconds left in first half stoppage time, Bayern effectively put the game to bed, with provider turning scorer this time as Harder scored from a low Bühl cross.
Any inkling of hope Frankfurt might have had coming out into the second half was brutally extinguished after just three minutes, when Bühl capped off a brilliant performance with her second assist of the night, this time to Damnjanović.
With the game more or less done and dusted, Barcala made some early substitutions. Alara had already come on for Dallmann at the restart, and Bühl and Kett were replaced by Barbara Dunst and Carolin Simon, respectively, on the hour mark.
Bayern added a fifth when Damnjanović pressed high and won the ball in a dangerous position, where Harder received it and played through Alara to finish off.
Barcala used his final subs to put on Stine Ballisager and Vanessa Gilles in place of Harder and Viggósdóttir, and eventually saw the rest of the game out relatively uneventfully, although his team could have added one or two more goals.
Observations
Any worries that Bayern would suffer from an international break hangover were put to bed as they breezed past one of the strongest teams in the league. With eleven wins and one draw in twelve games, the Frauen are cruising, to say the very least.
If one were to nitpick, though, the shift in momentum in the first half was a bit worrying. Bayern gave the ball away too sloppily and too often in midfield. Maintaining possession was tricky for around 25 odd minutes until just around halftime, especially with the rain-soaked pitch not helping matters. However, the players pushed through and won the momentum back with the second goal. From then on, there was lights out for Frankfurt.
Pernille Harder and Klara Bühl were the standout performers, each getting a goal and two assists. It is especially encouraging that they got some well-deserved rest as well, considering that the Frauen still have two English weeks until the winter break. Barcala seems to be rotating his squad quite well on the whole, resulting in consistently fresh-looking performances throughout the majority of the season so far.
Bayern’s next game is an away trip to Atlético Madrid in the Champions League on Wednesday.
