It was not just the Männer who had to work for their win – Bayern Munich Frauen also made extremely hard work out of a rather scrappy game against Bayer Leverkusen.
The reigning champions were not helped by referee Anna-Lena Heidenreich, whose inconsistent calls were taken full advantage of by the hosts. A rather soft free kick from Paulina Tomasiak took a lucky deflection and looped out of Ena Mahmutovic’s reach for the opener.
That said, Bayern were not exactly in stellar form themselves, and while
they were done harshly by the goal, one could argue they did not deserve to be leading at halftime. They did get an early equalizer in the second half, with Vanessa Gilles scoring her third goal in as many games through a well struck header. But injury returnee Franziska Kett made a poor pass that led to Tomasiak’s second of the game soon after, and Bayern were chasing the game again.
Leverkusen turned the game more and more physical, with many players resorting to tucking the ball under their bodies to keep possession and draw fouls. However, said approach only took them so far, and substitute Edna Imade latched onto a Giulia Gwinn cross to head home the second equalizer.
At that point, the game was wide open, but Bayern were not going to settle for just a point. Indeed, with just two minutes left on the clock, Klara Bühl made a quick break and passed to another substitute in Alara, who deftly took a low driving shot that glanced off the post and into the net. For the first time in 88 minutes, Bayern were leading.
Stoppage time came and went, and despite a nervy moment or two, the champions saw out the win and maintained their winning streak.
Bayern’s next game is a home Bundesliga meeting with FC Köln, and afterwards, the Bundesliga takes a short break as the Frauen begin their Champions League and DFB-Pokal campaigns.
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