FC Bayern Coach Believes His Side Need To Be “Brave” Against Arsenal

Ahead of a match set to be played in front of the largest attendance in the women’s Champions League this season, José Barcala has called on his side to be “brave” against Arsenal.

FC Bayern have never progressed beyond the semi-finals of the women’s Champions League, going out of the group stage in 2023 and the quarter-finals last season. Like their men’s side who hired former FC Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola to bring them success in European competition, the FC Bayern women’s side have turned to a Spanish coach, José Barcala to turn their domestic domination into a Champions League success.

The Bavarian side have made a predictably strong start to their domestic campaign – unbeaten in ten matches which has already enabled them to establish a six-point lead at the top of the Frauen Bundesliga table. However the old doubts about their ability to cut it with Europe’s elite resurfaced after they were on the end of a 7-1 pummeling from FC Barcelona in their opening League Phase game in the Champions League.

Barcala’s plans had already been severely undermined by the loss of his vice-captain Sarah Zadrazil and the midfield dynamo Lena Oberdorf for the rest of the season. Both, who would have played together in the heart of FC Bayern’s midfield, suffered ruptures to their anterior cruciate ligaments at the beginning of the campaign.

Today, the prospect of losing another one of his international stars emerged. Barcala was joined in the pre-match press conference by goalkeeper Mala Grohs, a late replacement for the Danish captain, Pernille Harder, who had previously been announced as the player to appear in front of the media.

Harder’s has brought her talismanic qualities to Bavaria extending her unbelievable sequence of winning league title in ten consecutive seasons. She also scored a memorable 13-minute hat trick against Arsenal in Munich last September and her absence would be a severe blow for FC Bayern. Despite confirming that Harder was “feeling unwell” this morning, Baracala said “we think she will be ready for tomorrow.”

Harder scored in FC Bayern’s second Champions League game, at home to Juventus last month. It was her 42nd goal in the UEFA Women’s Champions League in just 59 appearances placing her joint-eighth on the all-time list. Yet it took an injury-time winner to secure the three points for the German team.

Speaking to the media ahead of the game against the defending champions Arsenal, Barcala admitted that the defeat to Barcelona was “painful” but “necessary”. “We are trying to go game by game, showing our strengths, trying to be the team we want to be”

“What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. It’s good to get some learnings, understanding that this game against Arsenal will be a really different scenario. We will make a different game. We need to understand that we need to be brave, we need to try and dominate the opponent and understand that losing the ball is part of the game.”

FC Bayern made 812 passes in the last Bundesliga game against Union Berlin, almost twice as many as any other team in the league, indicating they are attempting to move to a more possession-based game. Barcala stressed that “we need to be prepared for those moments where the team losses the ball, that we are still balanced to counter-press to regain the ball back, and if we don’t regain it back, we are back in shape as soon as possible because they are so good in transition.”

“We also need to understand that they have the quality to be the dominant team from time to time so we don’t need to be desperate in some moments. We need to be compact, we need to be organised and find our moment to also surprise in transitions. There will be moments where they are pressing high, moments they have a low block. We need to understand in what moment of the game we are.”

Arsenal prepared for tomorrow’s game with a swashbuckling draw against English champions Chelsea, a match which showcased their ability to change a game seemingly going against them. Barcala told me “that last match was a very important game to analyse for us. The lessons we learned is that we need to be really good in our build-up from five meters because they are a team that are really well-coordinated in that high-press game.

“If you don’t succeed because then there is open space where they can play against your back four with 60 meters to defend. So, it’s very iportant that when we press high, we do it with coordination, with intensity. We need to counter-press the same.”

Tomorrow FC Bayern will host the reigning European champions at the Allianz Arena, where they opened their season in front of a German record attendance of 51,700. So far 15,000 tickets have been sold, less than a third as many. However that figure would be double the largest attendance in the League Phase of the competition so far, in another season where crowds in the women’s game seems to have plateaued.