Uncover the details of Pernille Harder’s remarkable goal that led Bayern to a 2-0 triumph over Juventus, solidifying her status as a top player in women’s football.
Introduction:
Bayern München guaranteed a great start into the season by registering another convincing 2-0 win, this time at home against Juventus in the UEFA Women’s Champions League. Goals from Linda Dallmann and Pernille Harder were enough to give Juventus their first defeat in the season, ending their nine-game winning run in all competitions. The Bavarian giants showed all their strength, control, and sharpness, keeping clean sheet through a match they mostly dominated but Juventus still threatened sometimes.
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Bayern Early Domination
Bayern poured out at the whistle and soon were piling all the pressure on Juventus, having the visitors pinned back in their defensive third for much of the opening. Bayern’s intensity proved relentless, and they created their first real chance within a few minutes: Giulia Gwinn nearly diverted a cross at the near post past Juventus keeper Lisa Boattin, but the latter managed to deflect it behind for a corner.
Juventus’s defense held firm until the 20th minute when Bayern persistence was fully rewarded. Having failed to clear a corner from the left, Juventus were then faulted for not clearing it from the danger zone, and with a bit of contact from Dallmann, headed it back across the goal to level matters. Even with how scrappy the goal was, Dallmann instinctively flicked it into the back of the net with her right foot. The midfielder celebrated the goal that rewarded Bayern’s early dominance, which saw them enjoy 70% possession in the first half.
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Response of Juventus
Though Juventus started conceding early, they never lost their composure. They had been holding great fort defensively, and just before Bayern’s opener started to find success on the counterattack as well. A few quick corners gave hope to Juventus at the end of the first half. Inability to capitalize on those kept them trailing, though.
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A testament to the Juventus side, despite being in Bayern’s pocket for much of the game, was great resilience, which spelled danger each time they progressed up the field. They surely knew that if they had any hope of turning this match around, they’d have to do better than they did in the first half of the match.
Back to Defense Stands Firm Bayern
The second 45 began with a change of momentum, with the Bianconeri appearing the stronger of the two teams. Early on, a decent chance fell to Juventus striker Vangsgaard, who did very well to find space for a shot only seeing the movement find the outside of the right-hand post. Almost as if that near miss was just the wake-up call Bayern needed, and they immediately responded by tightening up at the back, retaking the initiative of the game.
While Juventus dominated most of the possession in the second half of play, Bayern’s backline was exceptional in quelling attacks by the opponent. Juventus was short of that creativity that would unlock Bayern’s tight rearguard and, seemingly, needed a miracle to overtake Bayern.
Historic Goal by Pernille Harder
On the other end, however, just when Juventus were looking to push forward in search of an equalizer, Bayern struck again, this time through Pernille Harder with the Danish striker wrestling control from a corner that went in from close range in the 75th minute. The 50th to the end will go down in history since this is where Bayern sealed the deal in the championship, and it also made Harder the 39th UEFA Women’s Champions League goal and put her in the top ten all-time scorers in the competition.
But Harder has faced those moments of experience and shown the class to create on such crucial moments. Bayern had been very solid before; Harder’s strike steadied the situation, and then the team started controlling the rest of the game rightly so that Juventus had no way to return to the match.
Post-Match Reactions
Bayern midfield and opener Linda Dallmann said after the game, “We are very happy about the win. It was a tough game against a really difficult opponent. We started well and this helped us in achieving the three points.”.
The Juventus captain was magnanimous in defeat as she admitted that the qualities of their opponents: “We struggled a little bit at the beginning, then we started to grow, but unfortunately we failed to take the chances we created. Then we were a bit careless on a corner and were punished with their second goal. Bayern are a great team and we have to congratulate them.”
Conclusion
Bayern München, naturally, was the team at ease, which merited winning. They played disciplined and efficient football that the Italian side could not counter anything seriously about it: this was their first defeat of the season. Bayern carried on with things as they had begun and stayed one of the favorites for the game of the UEFA Women’s Champions League by scoring two, thanks to Dallmann and a historic goal by Harder. Juventus, in its turn, will need to bounce back quickly if it is to regain its rhythm going forward.