Bayern Munich fell to a late 1-1 draw on the road Thursday at Vålerenga, but nonetheless qualified for the UEFA Women’s Champions League quarterfinals with two matches to spare.
The Bavarians had their chances throughout but largely could not make them count. Despite success playing players in behind down the wings and finding good openings for cutbacks, Bayern lacked in sharpness of the final action and looked as likely to concede as to score — extraordinary, given the gap in possession and reputation between the sides.
But Vålerenga, who lost 3-0 to Bayern last Tuesday, showed that it is not a team of pushovers. On their cold home stomping grounds in Oslo, the runaway Toppserien champions erased a significant possession deficit to match Bayern blow for blow in the shots and shots on target metrics — and that hardly begins to tell the story.
While Bayern settled for near sensational moments and narrowly missed passes, Vålerenga turned on the gas and hit the Bavarians for two of the game’s best chances. In the first half, Emma Stølen Godø breezed by the Bayern backline to wind up 1-on-1 with Ena Mahmutovic and took two efforts, denied brilliantly and desperately by the Bayern keeper and then defender Giulia Gwinn. Later, in the second, Olaug Tvedten blazed a shot from the left that Mahmutovic barely managed to tip…onto one first post before banking off the opposite one and, by chaos or sheer fortune, back into the field of play.
Bayern coach Alexander Straus opted for an unconventional front-two — Pernille Harder and Linda Dallmann — and it was not until substitute Jovana Damnjanović came in at striker that the Bavarians finally found their lethal touch. Harder, dropping into the right half-space, slipped Giulia Gwinn down the line and the fullback drilled a low cross into shooting position for Damnjanović to drive home.
It was Bayern’s capable and free-flowing construction vindicated, or so it seemed. Finally, a Bayern player able to arrive for the shot to convert the build-up into final product. The goal felt a long way coming and potentially the dagger.
But Vålerenga showed there was no quit in them.
A pair of late corners gifted the hosts their third golden double-opportunity of the match, and it proved to be one chance too many. Defender Elise Thorsnes was there to nod home the second ball from the second corner and score the game’s second goal, to the roar of the crowd and her teammates.
For a brief moment, it kept Vålerenga’s Champions League hopes alive. However, Arsenal’s win later in the day — courtesy of an 89th minute goal from Lina Hurtig — confirmed Bayern and Arsenal as the group’s only qualifiers.
“Overall it’s been a good Champions League, but the performance today is not good enough…we need to be honest about that,” Straus noted in his comments after the match.
Still, Bayern will be delighted to be in a position to pick at their own faults while preparing for the UWCL quarters. A December 18th date with Arsenal in England awaits — a match which could decide the final ordering in Group C.
And the schedule before that does not let up for Bayern. It’s on the road to face SC Freiburg in the DFB-Pokal this Sunday. Time to shake it off and go again.
