UWCL Preview: Bayern Munich vs. Manchester City

Nairavoice | Sep 21, 2026 42m ago 165 0 10 min read

UWCL Preview: Bayern Munich vs. Manchester City

Bayern Munich is ushering in a new era for its women’s team as it begins its 2026/27 UEFA Women’s Champions League campaign by hosting Manchester City. It will be the first time the FC Bayern Frauen play at their new home stadium, the recently-purchased Sportpark Unterhaching.

Bayern’s biggest absence remains midfielder Lena Oberdorf. Her replacement, Bernadette Amani, returns to the squad following her recent injury against Leverkusen.

The Man City women edged out Arsenal for the Women’s Super League last season and have a perfect start to the domestic campaign so far — three wins out of three, all by two goals or more. As is the case for Bayern, this will be City’s biggest test.

City boast three German national team players in the squad: center-back Rebecca Knaak, midfielder Sydney Lohmann, and newly-arrived fullback Carlotta Wamser. Jamaican forward Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw leads the way and already has four goals and an assist on the year; other big names on the roster include wingers Lauren Hemp (England) and Mary Fowler (Australia), who have two goals apiece. It’s a formidable attack — even without the injured Dutch forward Vivianne Miedema — that will pose a serious challenge for a Bayern defense that has allowed two goals in each of the last two games, against Leverkusen and Köln respectively.
or steady? Bayern’s form heading in

Only six games into the season, it’s hard to read the tea leaves for where this Bayern team stands. The Frauen opened with a 3-0 easing past of VfL Wolfsburg in the Supercup, then reeled off three relatively smooth victories in the league: away at Union Berlin (4-1), home over Mainz (2-0) and home over SC Freiburg (4-1). The Freiburg win was particularly impressive but was followed by a shaky performance on the road against Leverkusen, coming on the heels of the blow of Oberdorf’s injury setback.

The Leverkusen game nearly ended as one of those unhappy stories we’ve seen many times before: a team with a heavy advantage on the stat sheet but not the scoreboard; the frequent bane of good possession and control-oriented sides everywhere. Bayern finished with 76% possession but conceded 9 shots to their own 17 and required an 88th-minute winner from substitute Alara Şehitler to pull out a 3-2 win.

“We were just lacking the final pass or the final finish at the end,” fullback Franziska Kett said afterwards while her head coach, José Barcala, praised the first 45′ — after which Bayern trailed 1-0 — as “probably the best this season” due to his side’s “tremendous control” (as captured by FCBayern.com).

Credit to Leverkusen’s stout and compact defense for sure, but if there is an occasional thorn to this Bayern side, it is that lack of cutting edge in the final third. When it’s on, it’s on and the goals can pour while the team’s stars up front sparkle. A touch too often, the team looks wanting for ideas or even a sense of urgency before the game’s final moments as they probe and squander would-be chances.

That gave Leverkusen — and especially Paulina Tomasiak, who scored both her side’s goals on the night — the opening they needed to make the game feel far more contested than the possession stats would indicate. A superb free kick and a lethal transition after an errant Bayern backpass had the home crowd roaring…and those weren’t the only strong chances of the night. Bayern showed they can be cut open at a moment’s notice.

At the same time, the Bavarians also showed the wherewithal to dig deep and keep going. If Barcala’s substitutes came slightly later than the game was calling for, they arrived in time to swing the momentum and pull out the kind of scrappy victory you hope to build on.

Build they did five days later, in the final test before City. Back at home, a rotated side smashed a credible 1. FC Köln side 5-2 all while stars Klara Bühl and Giulia Gwinn got a full match off and the likes of Momoko Tanikawa, Jovana Damnjanović, Franziska Kett and Pernille Harder all played limited minutes with a view to a UWCL match that would come with just two days in between.

When the Bayern machine is humming, it looks nigh unstoppable.

Klara Bühl, Momoko Tanikawa, and Giulia Gwinn: three huge names and players that Bayern are lucky to have.

“Big Game Bühl” has been in the form of her life, with eight goals and 23 assists across the Frauen-Bundesliga and UWCL last season and already two goals and five assists in her four league matches so far this year. She’s one of the best wingers in the world right now, and at 25, we can expect years more of this dominance to come.

Tanikawa, just 21, is in her third season at Bayern and really broke onto the scene last year under Barcala. The Japanese international plays with a refinement and technical polish that instantly sets her apart on the field; her hockey-assist pass from deep that found Bühl for Alara’s 88th-minute winner against Leverkusen being just the most recent example of it. When she and Bühl are locked in, it is something to behold. However, she’s playing deeper this season than last — and while she can clearly do an excellent job as a playmaker from central midfield, she made her mark at the No. 10 and is perhaps still at her most potent getting into the middle of the action in and around the box.

Gwinn, 27, has been the face of Germany women’s football for a while. She’s a force on the right flank, playing perhaps slightly out of position at right-back for club and country. Gwinn has dealt with injuries recently and is early into her comeback. She scored in her return against Mainz and assisted twice in Bayern’s comeback over Leverkusen. How she holds her wing and what damage she can do going forward against City will be a key storyline on Tuesday.

A dark horse for this season, if not this game, is Alara. The 19-year-old who has played both midfield and across the front line is in her third season of regular minutes with the Bayern seniors. Nicknamed “Baby G.O.A.T” for her incredible promise and early flashes of brilliance, Alara’s breakout is a long time coming. She is still featuring more from the bench at this stage, and her starting turn against Köln likely means she won’t be in the XI on Tuesday. Her versatility and her late heroics against Leverkusen — not her first time at such feats — underscore why she’ll be one of Barcala’s aces up the sleeve this year.

Squad building has long been a conversation in the FC Bayern Frauen fanbase. Admittedly, it is a subjective matter, though sentiment seems to be that Bayern’s investments under Barcala have been more coherent than under his predecessor Alexander Straus.

In any case, looking at the Bayern XI, the biggest question mark — at least from this author’s perspective — is at striker. Four years ago Lea Schüller was coming off a Bundesliga golden boot with 16 goals; she would remain in the top three for another two seasons. Jovana Damjnanović was already in the rotation at this time and remains a steady but not game-breaking presence. In the last two seasons Pernille Harder has assumed most of the goal-scoring responsibility but both she and Damnjanović need help, and at 31 and 33 respectively Bayern need to look to the future.

That future is coming, but has not quite arrived. Kassandra Potsi, an 18-year-old striker who arrived from SGS Essen this summer, is starting to ease in to the rotation. She enjoyed 45′ in a sub appearance against Köln. Further along is Edna Imade (25), who transferred in last season and scored 11 goals for Real Sociedad on loan in Spain’s top flight before integrating back at Bayern last spring. Bayern would benefit from a big Imade breakout this year.

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That question is at wing, specifically at right wing opposite Bühl. Bayern could use a player like Jule Brand, who pairs with Bühl for Germany but opted for Lyon after leaving Wolfsburg last summer. So far Bayern is featuring Linda Dallmann (32), another German national team stalwart but a player perhaps more of the attacking midfield profile. A common theme across Bayern and Germany, isn’t it? — a lot of talented No. 10s, slotted in wherever they might fit. In Dallmann, Harder, and Damnjanović the Bavarians have three across their front four who are most dangerous centrally. It’s an area where Bayern could morph into something more potent with just a small change in profile. Sophie Proost (19) is an intriguing arrival who is already looking a quick study. At the least, she could provide some much-needed rest opportunities for Bühl.

Of course, no discussion is really complete without the absolutely rotten luck experienced by Lena Oberdorf. The 24-year-old is a ferocious presence in defensive midfield, really the total package. She has led club and country as one of the best No. 6s in the world from a young age, with her run of regular starts for SGS Essen beginning in 2018/19. She was a huge signing for Bayern in the summer of 2024…and then tore her ACL and MCL before that season began while on international duty. She made her comeback a year later, only to tear the same ACL last October. And now, just two games into her comeback, she is again out indefinitely.

That kind of absence, three years into a marquee signing’s club career, does not simply go unnoticed. It’s compounded now by the double departures of Georgia Stanway for Arsenal and Arianna Caruso for Real Madrid. Bayern is playing a lot of Bernadette Amani and still has Sarah Zadrazil, and has dropped Tanikawa and super-sub Alara back from the front four, but none of this was quite the plan and there is no replacement on hand.

Bayern has won the Frauen-Bundesliga four years running, but Champions League management has always been the question. The Bavarians have faded in Europe and even once missed out on qualifying for the knockouts in this time. A blowout to Lyon in 2024/25 and a painful second loss to Barcelona remains fresh in the memory…along with last season’s early-season collapse to a Barça team that was a class apart, but not by that much.

So there are lingering questions about depth, about early-season form, about how comfortably Bayern can juggle across all competitions. All we can say for now is it looks reasonably promising, for September, but this kind of test is a measuring-stick match and one where we should learn a lot about just where this team really is.

Looking to the future, there is a growing sense of urgency, too. Bayern can’t be the kind of club that lets Barça and Lyon and all the top dogs of the Women’s Super League pull away. Barça have tried for Bühl and might just come back for her; Tanikawa is also just the sort of technical maestro the Catalans might prize. The Bavarians have demonstrated pull on the transfer market, but, Stanway has come and gone, and the Harder era is likely closer to its closing chapters too.

The window for Bayern to cement itself as a top dog in Europe is here. A good performance on Tuesday will go a long way…especially considering this year’s UWCL slate is a real gauntlet.
3-2, Bayern

This is a game that could go both ways. Bayern’s rested and ready and we have to hope for the best. Expect both teams to go for it, resulting in an open game with lots of scoring.

Nervous? No, you’re nervous. Let’s go Bayern Frauen!