Women’s Bundesliga starts the season in front of 23,000 fans
Bayern Munich’s Tainara (back) in a header duel with Eintracht Frankfurt’s Tanja Pawollek
Quelle: Getty Images/Alex Grimm
Not a winner, but a winner: football celebrates a record number of spectators at the start of the women’s Bundesliga. However, they do not see goals in the duel between Eintracht Frankfurt and FC Bayern Munich. Still, the players are excited.
VThe women’s Bundesliga started its 33rd season with a record crowd of 23,200 spectators and a 0-0 draw between Eintracht Frankfurt and FC Bayern Munich. 47 days after the European Championship final in England, national coach Martina Voss-Tecklenburg experienced an atmospheric start on Friday evening in Deutsche Bank Park, where the Eintracht men usually play.
“It was super nice. It’s a setting that women’s football wants. We felt that at the European Championships, but we wanted to take that into everyday life in the league. It’s great that so many people came to support us. You soak it up on the field, it’s great fun and we hope it will continue like this for the next games,” said Bavaria’s national player Giulia Gwinn on the TV channel Eurosport.
Frankfurt’s Geraldine Reuteler was also enthusiastic about the scenery. “It’s a great, great atmosphere here. It was really, really fun to play football here,” said the striker and praised her team for the fighting game: “I’m super proud of the team. We showed a great game.” And coach Niko Arnautis enthused: “We played a really great game from the first second. The team delivered a mega performance today. We can still live well with the point, we build on it.”
The previous attendance record in the league came from 2014, when VfL Wolfsburg beat 1. FFC Frankfurt in front of 12,464 fans. The vice-champion from Munich under the new Norwegian coach Alexander Straus missed out against the Frankfurt team around Laura Freigang to set an exclamation mark in the championship right at the start. Defending champions Wolfsburg around DFB captain Alexandra Popp will play against SGS Essen on Saturday (1 p.m.).
Bayern Munich’s attacking trio struggled
With the national anthem and the honoring of the German vice European champions in the Bayern and Eintracht teams, there was a bit of an EM atmosphere at the beginning. In addition, Munich’s international striker Lea Schüller was named “Soccer Player of the Year”. As a new signing, English European champion Georgia Stanway immediately took on a central role in FC Bayern’s midfield without setting any highlights until she was substituted at half-time.
The attacking trio with Schüller, Lina Magull and Klara Bühl had a hard time against the convincing Frankfurt women. After a mistake by Sjoeke Nüsken, Magull missed the huge opportunity to take the lead (48th). On the other side, Lara Prasnikar (67th) and Geraldine Reuteler (77th) failed to goalkeeper Maria-Luisa Grohs in a passionate and high-class game, but for a long time there were few goal chances.
