Bayern Munich opened the Alianz Arena for the semifinal of the UEFA Women’s Champions League against Barcelona and welcomed in 31,000 fans in attendance. Bayern have been strong in all competitions since these two clubs met last — a 7-1 Barcelona win in October in this season’s first UWCL match. Since then, Bayern stormed back to earn a top-four finish and beat Manchester United to make it to the semifinals.
Despite the better performance from Bayern since their last meeting, Barcelona still had the confidence
of their last meetings — and their 12-2 aggregate win against Real Madrid in the last round. Ewa Pajor opened the scoring in the eighth minute to give Barcelona an early lead. But unlike last time, Bayern did not let them pile on any further goals.
Barcelona took their slim lead into halftime but Bayern were finally able to produce their best chance of the night in the 69th minute. Pernille Harder ran into the box and took two defenders with her. She passed it across the box, behind Linda Dallman — who took another defender with her run — and found Franziska Kett with a lot of room. Kett took a dribble and fired the ball past the Barca keeper.
About ten minutes later, Kett went from hero to accidental villain. Defending near the touchline, she was beat by a step and reached to grab jersey but caught a small amount of the Barcelona player’s hair. Unfortunately, any amount of hair pulled is almost always a straight red card, no matter the intent. Bayern had to play the last ten minutes plus stoppage time with ten players. Bayern’s head coach, José Barcala, also received a red card for his demonstrative protests. Another staff member on the bench received a yellow as well.
As they did since the early Barca goal, Bayern remained strong in defense. Everyone played their part and got back to help. Despite have the numerical disadvantage, Bayern grinded out the result while being cheered on by a loud, though nervous, Allianz Arena. They were able to survive a late barrage of Barcelona chances and finished the match without conceding again, earning a 1-1 draw in front of their home fans.
The return match will be in Barcelona’s Camp Nou next Sunday, May 3. The winner will take on the winner of Aresenal and OL Lyonnes Saturday, May 23 in Oslo.
