Bayern Munich Frauen v Arsenal Preview

THE LOWDOWN
Arsenal begin their Champions League group stage with a tough away day in Munich against German champions Bayern. The teams met a couple of seasons ago in a riveting quarter-final when the Gunners overturned a 1-0 first leg deficit with a rip roaring second leg performance to win the tie 2-1.

In truth, such a performance, with that level of energy, feels a long time ago. Arsenal are coming off the back of a pair of below par WSL performances that returned an underwhelming 1-0 win at Leicester and a drab 0-0 draw with Everton. With Bayern on Wednesday and Chelsea on Saturday, it feels like a make or break week for Arsenal’s season already.

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On the bright side, Arsenal tend to fare better in games against the better opponents who leave a little more space and allow Eidevall’s counterattacking football to flourish compared to playing against some of the deeper defensive blocks in the WSL. But the Gunners cannot take for granted that they will always beat the bigger teams, those games are still open to a fair amount of jeopardy even regardless of performance.

The fan base was already tetchy before the draw with Everton but creating only 0.7XG, with the highest value shot coming in at 0.07XG at the Emirates on Sunday has moved many supporters from scepticism to anger and disillusionment. Make no mistake, Arsenal need a result and a performance in Germany.

TEAM NEWS

Steph Catley and Leah Williamson are in line to start after coming on as substitutes in the Everton game. Lina Hurtig is back in full training but doesn’t make the squad for this game as she continues to build fitness after a long absence. Victoria Pelova (ACL) and Amanda Ilestedt (maternity leave) are out, as is Laura Wienroither with a muscular injury.

Available squad
Goalkeepers: 1.Zinsberger, 14.van Domselaar 40.Williams
Defenders: 2.Fox 3.Wubben-Moy 5.L.Codina 6.Williamson 7.Catley 11.McCabe 62.Reid
Midfielders: 10.Little 12.Maanum 13.Walti 16.Kafaji 22.Kuhl 32.Cooney-Cross
Forwards: 9.Mead 19.Foord 23.Russo 25.Blackstenius 53.Lia 56.Godfrey

A WORD FROM THE BOSS
‘They are really strong in their counter attacking game they move with a lot of pace when they are facing forwards. That part, you have to consider when you are playing against them. They have been really strong on their setpieces so far this season, really good deliveries on corners and free-kicks and that is another part we have to watch.

‘They are well organised and a good team but so we are and while they have strengths, they also have weaknesses and we need to exploit that and mitigate our weaknesses and play to our strengths, that is going to be the tactical battle. It is full throttle once they are facing forward in front of your defending line.

‘They have players who are really good at driving at you with speed and coming at you with pace and that is what really stands out with them. Now we need to focus on Bayern Munich and focus on that as well as possible and after that, we take Chelsea.’

LAST TIME OUT
The teams met at the quarter-final stage in the 2022-23 season. Arsenal lost the first leg in Munich 1-0 due to a lea Schuller goal but Arsenal overturned the deficit in the home leg. First half goals from Stina Blackstenius and Frida Maanum gave Arsenal a 2-1 aggregate victory.

THE OPPOSITION
Bayern are well on the way to establishing themselves as Germany’s dominant women’s team after a long spell of Wolfsburg dominance. Bayern won the title in 2015 and 2016 to challenge Wolfsburg’s supremacy before Wolfsburg came back to win four league titles in a row. Things have been closer since then with the teams trading titles in 2021 and 2022.

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But now Bayern are pulling away with consecutive Frauen Bundesligas and over the summer, they took one of Wolfsburg’s best players, Lena Oberdorf on a free transfer (though Oberdorf, sadly subsequently ruptured her ACL). Boasting talent like Pernille Harder, Georgia Stanway and Lea Schuller, Bayern are one of the best teams in Europe without a doubt.

However, unlike Arsenal, they have yet to win this competition and they will be keen to make amends for last season’s shock group stage exit, when they were grouped with Ajax, PSG and Roma. They are the first seeds in this group but exited the competition two seasons ago at the hands of Jonas Eidevall’s side in the quarter-finals.

PLAYER TO WATCH
After the two legged qualifying win over Hacken, which produced two very differing performances between the first and second legs, Jonas Eidevall pinpointed the understanding between the wingers Mariona and Beth Mead as one of the key differentials in the performances.

Eidevall said the two came inside simultaneously too often in the first leg, whereas, in the second leg, which Arsenal won 4-0, he said the understanding was far better about who comes in field and who stays wide. Everton was certainly a step backwards in that respect with both players inside at the same time too often and crowding central areas.

Caitlin Foord has probably been Arsenal’s best performing wide player so far this season and a lot of that is because she balances the team by holding the width of the pitch more naturally. On Sunday, her substitute appearance was the most impactful, playing as a right wing-back she attacked the wide areas far more naturally and I expect her to start this match for that reason.

PREDICTED LINE-UP

Subs: 3.Wubben-Moy 9.Mead 11.McCabe 14.van Domselaar 16.Kafaji 22.Kuhl 25.Blackstenius 32.Cooney-Cross 40.Williams 56.Godfrey 62.Reid

HOW TO CATCH THE GAME
The game kicks off at 5.45pm UK time at the Bayern campus and will be streamed live and free of charge on DAZN’s website.

COMING UP
We will have every word of Jonas Eidevall’s post-match press conference shortly after full-time and we will speak with a player too. Jamie and I will be back with another Arsenal Women Arsecast in the wake of the Chelsea game on Monday. Don’t forget that we have a free weekly Arsenal Women newsletter on the Arseblog News Substack page, which goes out every Friday morning.