Bayern Munich Frauen 2 - 0 Leverkusen: Highlights and recap

The FC Bayern Frauen continued their strong end to the 2022 calendar year with a 2-0 win over Bayer 04 Leverkusen under the wintry scenes of a December snowfall. A super goal from Georgia Stanway broke the deadlock in the first half, and Bayern Munich survived a free kick that bounced kindly off the crossbar long enough for Sydney Lohmann to power home a strike and double their advantage.

Sarah Zadrazil had just barely missed latching on to a dangerous ball into the box in front of the Leverkusen keeper — one of the Bayern Frauen’s early chances to power home a lead. However, the midfielder made amends immediately by collecting from Lina Magull and playing a neat through-ball to Georgia Stanway at the top of the box, and the Manchester City transfer hit a magnificent shot across her body to secure the 1-0.

Lea Schüller had a pair of chances to double the lead soon after, but saw one shot parried and one gone wide.

The second half opened with a couple of early scares — a dangerous ball into the box that Bayern keeper Mala Grohs barely collected in time, and then a super free kick from range that beat her but not the crossbar.

Finally it was Sydney Lohman collecting a slide across from Carolin Simon and firing through the roof of goal from a narrow angle. Stanway had one more excellent chance late, but fired wide — and it wasn’t required.

On the injury front, Maxi Rall’s broken nose (sustained against FC Barcelona) atop Giulia Gwinn’s ACL tear earlier this season means that Bayern are down both their most natural right-back options. Alexander Straus opted to shift center-back Tainara (a new arrival this transfer window) out wide, with Glódís Viggósdóttir and Saki Kumagai forming the central pairing.

The Frauen now sit 8-1-1 on the year and second in the table, with two matches remaining in the year — both in the UEFA Women’s Champions League — on December 15 and 21.