Extra time heartbreak for Bayern women in Paris
March 30, 2022PSG 2-2 Bayern Munich, Parc des Princes
(Baltimore 17', Bachmann 112' – Kumagai 19‘, Bühl 54‘)
PSG win 4-3 on aggregate
Ramona Bachmann came off the bench to score an extra time winner, sending PSG through to the final four of the Champions League at Bayern Munich's expense.
The result extends Bayern's wait for a Champions League title as PSG, who like their male counterparts, have been unable to go all the way in Europe's elite club competition. Lyon or Juventus wait for PSG, who have twice lost the final of this competition, in 2015 and 2017, and make up the final four for the third straight season.
Earlier on Wednesday, Barcelona had set a new attendance record for a women's club game as over 91,000 fans assembled at Camp Nou. This meeting in Paris attracted 27,262, a new record for PSG and another positive advert for the women's game.
This number included many PSG 'ultras' who transferred their support of the men to the women and helped create a big-game atmosphere and sense of occasion in Paris' 16th arrondissement.
Bayern lack killer instinct
However, things didn't exactly go to plan for the hosts. Sandy Baltimore's opener after a mistake by Bayern keeper Janina Leitzig briefly put PSG 3-1 up on aggregate and on track for the final four – but Bayern had other ideas. Jen Scheuer's team leveled two minutes later through Saki Kumagai's close-range finish – her third goal in her last two games.
By the time Lea Schüller redirected Klara Bühl's long ranger beyond the wrong-footed Barbora Votikova in the PSG goal, the tide was turning Bayern's way. With PSG struggling to wrestle control of midfield — they missed their injured ex-Bayern midfielder Sara Däbritz — the Germans dictated long periods of the second half but couldn't make their superiority count in normal time.
Bayern would be made to pay for that with the substitute Bachmann firing in after 112 minutes to settle a compelling game and emerge as the heroin. Bayern Munich's dream of winning a treble are downgraded to a domestic double, with Wolfsburg laying in wait this Sunday in the Frauen Bundesliga's top-of-the-table clash, a game upon which the success of Bayern's season now rests.