After a hard-fought victory in Gladbach, the Bayern women’s team faces a real showdown in the DFB Cup. In the round of 16, they’ll take on Leverkusen.
The FC Bayern women’s team faces a real test in the DFB Cup as early as the round of 16. The Munich squad will take on Bayer Leverkusen, as determined by Sunday night’s draw.
This means the two teams will meet again just a few weeks after their Bundesliga clash. As recently as mid-September, Bayern had prevailed 3-2 in Leverkusen. In that match, José Barcala’s team demonstrated great comeback qualities: The German champions initially trailed 0-1 and later fell behind again at 1-2, but still managed to turn the game around.
Sunday’s DFB Cup opener was just as nerve-wracking. Against second-division side Borussia Mönchengladbach, the defending champions faced the threat of an embarrassing defeat for much of the match. Bayern’s women trailed 0–1 until the 74th minute, when Vanessa Gilles scored twice off two corner kicks by substitute Klara Bühl to turn the game around for a 2–1 victory.
Bayern will face Leverkusen once again
Now, Bayern can hardly afford another slump like that. Leverkusen was among the top five teams in the Bundesliga last season and has already shown in their most recent matchup that it can cause the Munich team significant problems.
The round of 16 match will be played between October 31 and November 2. FC Bayern will have home-field advantage.
This matchup isn’t the only blockbuster of the round. With VfL Wolfsburg and TSG Hoffenheim, two more teams from last season’s top five in the Bundesliga will face off directly. Eintracht Frankfurt must travel to face 1. FC Nürnberg.
For the Bayern women, the path to successfully defending their title thus faces a major hurdle early on. After nearly being eliminated in Gladbach, they now face Leverkusen—an opponent against whom the Munich team managed to come back from a deficit with great difficulty just a few weeks ago.