With Bayern already qualified and Juventus mathematically eliminated, the Bianconeri’s ladies side hoped to restore a bit of pride to their campaign with a win over a Bayern side who had won their last nine games at home in this competition.
After a cagey opening, Bayern took the lead on twenty-two minutes with the first real chance of the game. Klara Bühl fought her way into space and ricocheted a shot off the bar from the edge of the box.
The second ball landed with Pernille Harder, but a defender got in the way. Jovana Damnjanović was on hand to mop up the ball though, firing home from close range as Bayern took a 1-0 lead into the break.
On the 53rd minute, Bayern made it 2-0 with an almost mirror image of the first goal. Bühl’s was parried by Juventus keeper Peyraud-Magnin, right into the lap of Danish international Harder who tapped the rebound in.
Bühl would then find herself on the scoresheet on the 73 minute mark, after prying the Juve defence open and slotting past Peyraud-Magnin.
The fourth and final goal came courtesy of Alara Şehitler on 82 minutes. Şehitler, who recently earned her first call up to the German international team, curled a shot into the top corner to cap off a miserable day for Juve’s ladies.
After the game, Juve manager Massimiliano Canzi gave his thoughts to the club’s website; “Compared to the game against Arsenal, when we gave very little away, things were a lot more difficult here from the off. I can’t criticise the girls’ application on the night, but there’s a gap and we have to work on closing that, starting with the physical side.
"We didn’t underestimate Bayern, and these games always allow us to take experience from. Looking ahead, the positives about playing every three games is that we can bounce back right away with a very important match. We’ll need to work to raise the ranking, so that we can increase our chances of avoid a group as complicated as this one.
“On my time at Juventus so far, the balance is positive. The team has its identity, we had our objectives and we’re in a good place regarding those: the first was to make it to the group stage of the Women’s Champions League and we managed that, then getting handed a tough draw. In the league we’re probably a little ahead of where we thought we’d be just a few months ago.”
Midfielder Hanna Bennison added; “We’re very disappointed with the result, of course we came here to try to win so it’s disappointing. I think we tried our best but we have to be a little better at keeping the ball and creating more chances to score goals.
We want to win the last game, of course we’re not happy with how we’ve played in the Champions League. We wanted to go through but we’re not there yet so we’ll keep working hard and try to come back again next year.”
The result means Bayern now lead Group C with 13 points from five games, one ahead of Arsenal. The two teams meet in a showdown to decide the group winners next Wednesday. Juventus will also end their group stage campaign that day, with a dead rubber against Norwegian side Vålerenga at the Stadio Comunale Vittorio Pozzo Lamarmora, with an 8PM CET kick-off time.