Women’s Champions League
FC Bayern in the quarter-finals – Wolfsburg has to tremble
Updated 12/17/2025 – 11:06 p.mReading time: 2 minutes
In the last game of the preliminary round, the Bayern women set the course for victory early on. Meanwhile, Wolfsburg takes the lead against Chelsea, but still loses in the end.
FC Bayern’s women booked their ticket to the quarter-finals of the Champions League with a confident performance on Wednesday evening. Thanks to two early goals, the Munich team prevailed 3-0 (2-0) against the Norwegian club Vålerenga Oslo in the final group game in front of their home crowd. That was enough for fourth place in the final table, which entitles the team to participate directly in the round of the last eight.
Meanwhile, VfL Wolfsburg has to worry about making it to the quarter-finals. At the same time, the team led by ex-DFB captain Alexandra Popp lost its home game against top English club FC Chelsea 1:2 (1:1). VfL only reached ninth place in the table. This means: In order to make it to the quarter-finals, the Lower Saxony team must first survive a playoff round in the new year. This takes place in February.
The quarter-finals will be played in March and April. In addition to Bayern, FC Barcelona, Olympique Lyon and Chelsea also qualified directly.
Bayern jumped into the top four of the 18 teams because their competitors Juventus Turin and Real Madrid failed. Momoko Tanikawa (2nd), Stine Ballisager (11th) and Pernille Harder (58th) scored their fourth three-pointer in the sixth preliminary round game with their 50th goal in the red and white jersey.
The victory could have been higher. Carolin Simon (9th) hit the crossbar with a corner, captain Georgia Stanway was denied by goalkeeper Tove Enblom with a hand penalty (34th).
In front of national coach Christian Wück, coach José Barcala had the luxury of resting top players like Giulia Gwinn and Magdalena Eriksson – DFB captain Gwinn was only substituted in the final phase (78th). Nevertheless, his team was clearly superior, only Klara Bühl missed several good opportunities.
More was possible for Wolfsburg in the game against Chelsea: Long-time national team captain Alexandra Popp (16th) took the lead early on for VfL, who missed several chances to make it 2-0. Lucy Bronze (45th) punished this with a header shortly before the break. Australian international striker Sam Kerr (64th) turned the game around and shot Chelsea into the quarter-finals.
Previously, Alyssa Thompson (46th) had already missed the best chances of making it 2-1 for the English team when she shot against the post and Erin Cuthbert (47th, 57th). National player Sjoeke Nüsken came on as a substitute for the guests at half-time. Bitter for VfL: A home win would have been enough for a direct quarter-final place thanks to the appropriate support.