Key events
16 min: Schuller makes a bright burst down the United left. She cuts a good-looking cross back for Malard, but it’s cut out for a corner.
15 min: “We need to offer structure, positioning and control,” said the Bayern Munich manager, Barcala, before kick-off. And that’s precisely what they are doing. Their defensive shape when out of possession is very impressive, the front six snap back into their positions seemingly automatically.
11 min: It’s all a bit scrappy – but United will probably take that if it means breaking up Bayern’s fluent attacking and keeping the pressure off. The midfielder Zigiotti Olme coughs up a free-kick near halfway.
8 min: Bayern threaten again. Harder gets a ball to feet in the area and then tees up a chance for Kett. Gwinn gets a chance too, the ball bobbling around near the hosts’ goal, but United finally manage to clear. Marc Skinner’s team are wobbling badly.
Tom Garry
There are around 100 Bayern fans to my right currently going wild in the away section. What a start for them. And from a defensive point of view for Manchester United, what an easy goal to concede.
Harder, the former Chelsea forward, chases a long ball from the right-back position in behind. Maya Le Tisser is in attendance but cannot deal with it. Harder gets the ball under control and slots a fine finish in the corner, no chance for Phallon Tullis-Joyce in goal. A horrible start for the hosts.
Goal! 2 min: Manchester United 0-1 Bayern Munich (Harder)
Wow! The worst possible start for Manchester United Women.
First-half kick-off!
Here we go.
Lea Schuller, in case you didn’t know, joined United from Bayern in January. Inside knowledge.
Marc Skinner, in his pre-match chat, said Schuller’s knowledge of Bayern’s game could be an advantage.
This is Bayern Munich’s eighth quarter-final in the competition. But they’ve never made it past the semi-finals, mind you.
Here we are then. The teams are lined up in the tunnel and it’s nearly go-time.
Tom Garry
Three sides of this stadium are empty, while one is jam-packed and bustling. Unfortunately, the television cameras are pointing towards the three empty stands. It’s a disappointing turnout, that’s for sure. But higher ticket sales are expected for Saturday’s WSL Manchester derby, back here on the same ground in just a few days’ time, so perhaps that’s the game the home fans have prioritised.
And now José Barcala, the Bayern Munich head coach, speaks:
“Pernille Harder is really important. A playmaker. For us it’s so important to have good positional play. She understands positioning better than anyone else and she is so clinical.
“Manchester United has the quality, the individual quality to punish you in transitions. They need a team that is disorganised and they can punish you when are not in the right position. We need to offer structure, positioning and control. Then probably, we have probabilities to get the game.”
Marc Skinner has a chat with Disney+:
“I’m really excited. We’re at a fantastic arena. We’ve created history, I want to see us express ourselves, just express who we are, and it’ll be an exciting game I’m sure.
“Lea Schuller will be important and hopefully knowing how they play with be an advantage … we have to be at our best. We are looking forward to the challenge.
“[It will be about] Riding the moments, momentum. They will create, we will create. I think it’s respecting, but not being in fear or in awe of them. We’re not here by luck. We are here by hard work, graft and commitment.”
Some of us are old enough to remember Manchester United men beating Bayern Munich in 1999:
Full-time: Real Madrid Women 2-6 Barcelona Women
Les jeux sont faits. A thumping win for Barça against their traditional/perennial/bitter (delete as applicable) rivals.
Sonia Bompastor, the Chelsea head coach, said the women’s game needs to be shown “more respect” after the decision to rule out Veerle Buurman’s goal in the first half of the first leg of the Champions League quarter-final was not overturned by the video assistant referee.
Buurman leapt and nodded in and looked to have halved the hosts’ lead, but the referee, Alina Pesu, immediately ruled out the effort for a perceived foul on Laia Codina and the VAR did not deem it a clear and obvious error.
Don’t forget you can email me with your thoughts.
Preferably on tonight’s match.
Now a penalty for Barça with the clock on 88min …
And that’s 6-2. Alexia Putellas with a Diego Maradona-style penalty, waiting for the keeper to move, and dispatching the ball safely into the opposite corner.
For Manchester United there are two changes: Lea Schuller comes in for Elisabeth Terland while Hinata Miyazawa, having just returned from playing in Japan’s Women’s Asian Cup final win against Australia on Saturday, replaces Simi Awujo.
Bayern Munich Women are unchanged from the 5-0 win against Essen on Saturday with Georgia Stanway, formerly of Manchester City, lining up as one of two defensive midfielders in a 4-2-3-1 formation.
It’s raining goals in Spain. It’s Real Madrid 2-5 Barcelona now.
Linda Caicedo just scored her second of the night for Madrid, and it was a belter, arrowed into the top corner from the edge of the box after a driving run at a backpedalling Barcelona defence.
Tom Garry
The local weather has provided a proper ‘welcome to Manchester’ for the Bayern Munich players today, with not only a chilling, blustery wind and frequent heavy showers but even a sudden burst of hail, which pounded on to the top of my car like pebbles a couple of hours ago as I was driving along the M56 towards the stadium. There is a freezing-cold feel in the air and rumours of an overnight frost on the way. So it will feel like this game is being played in January rather than late March, and you wonder whether that can benefit the hosts. Everyone in the stands has their hat, their scarves and their gloves back on again.
I’ll expand on those teams shortly, but now, an update from our intrepid reporter at Old Trafford …
Teams
Manchester United Women (4-3-3): Tullis-Joyce; Lundkvist, Le Tissier, Turner, Rolfo; Zigiotti Olme, Miyazawa, Naalsund; Park, Schuller, Malard. Substitutes: Rendell, Middleton-Patel, George, Terland, Awujo, Riviere, Anderson.
Bayern Munich Women (4-2-3-1): Mahmutovic; Gwinn, Viggosdottir, Gilles, Simon; Stanway, Kakounan; Dallmann, Caruso, Kett; Harder. Substitutes: Grohs, Ballisager, Eriksson, Tanikawa, Bidas, Dunst, Imade, Zahringer, Kreuzpaintner.
Real Madrid 1-4 Barcelona is a latest score in tonight’s earlier kick-off.
That’s ONE-FOUR to Barça. Remarkable.
Ewa Pajor (two), Esmee Brugts and Irene Paredes have scored the goals for Barcelona. One or two more and they’ve put the tie to bed before the second leg.
Tom Garry
It is no exaggeration to describe the next seven days as the most significant week of fixtures in the history of the Manchester United women’s team, as they contest their first European quarter-final with a crucial derby in between.
Debutants in the Champions League main draw, Marc Skinner’s side now have three box-office matches in huge arenas, starting with the first leg of their quarter‑final against Bayern Munich on Wednesday at Old Trafford, as the runaway Frauen‑Bundesliga leaders arrive in England hoping to illustrate their own European title credentials. The stage is set for a thriller.
Preamble
On their debut in the main draw of the Women’s Champions League Manchester United Women now find themselves facing one of the juggernauts of European football. It doesn’t get much tougher than a two-legged quarter-final encounter against Bayern Munich: but the manager Marc Skinner and his players are up for it.
“We have to be ready to make history,” Skinner said. “We challenge ourselves every day in training to be the team that competes in quarter-finals – and then hopefully a semi-final after that. We know the respect we have between Bayern Munich and Manchester United as two clubs – but when we go on to the field it’ll be the winner takes all. We have to manage both ties, show our maturity, but the challenge of it is fantastic … the energy around these games just hits differently.”
Skinner’s side defeated Paris Saint-Germain in the league phase and have kept eight clean sheets in 12 matches in the tournament, including qualifying rounds, so Bayern and the former Chelsea forward, Pernille Harder, will not underestimate the task ahead. United finished sixth in the league phase, progressing to the last eight with a resounding 5-0 aggregate win against Atlético Madrid Women in their playoff. Tonight’s first leg, and the second at the Allianz Arena in Munich next Wednesday, will be their biggest test yet.
Kick-off: 8pm UK time
