Mini treble for the Frauen!
Bayern Munich Frauen added yet another trophy to their already bulging cabinet after winning the World Sevens Football Tournament.
The tournament, the first edition of its kind, is a 7-a-side tournament hosted by World Sevens Football, hosted in Estoril, Portugal, just about half an hour from Lisbon. Eight teams were split into two groups, and the top two in each group advanced to the semifinals. 15-minute halves were played, but in the event of a draw, there were 5-a-side sudden death extra time periods, followed by sudden death penalty shootouts if necessary, even in the group stage as well.
Bayern were in Group A with Manchester City, Ajax, and FC Rosengård. They kicked off the tournament in style by beating Ajax 4-2 with goals from Jovana Damnjanović, Glódís Perla Viggósdóttir, Tuva Hansen, and Linda Dallmann. Hansen was booked for removing her shirt after scoring, but she took it in stride by blowing a kiss to the referee. FC Rosengård were next, and Bayern put four goals past them as well, this time from Momoko Tanikawa, Pernille Harder, and Julia Zigiotti, as well as Damnjanović.
Man City had also collected two wins, so the semifinal places were set even before the two sides faced off. However, Bayern showed no mercy and put them to the sword with goals from Dallmann, Zigiotti, and Maria Plattner for a 3-1 win.
Having won the group, the Bavarian Ladies faced Paris Saint-Germain in the semifinals. Despite the opening stages being quite cagey, Damnjanović opened the scoring after capitalizing on a poor clearance, and Plattner doubled the scores just a minute later. Tanikawa then scored a brace, one of which involved a nifty flick and a nutmeg, on either side of a Sarah Zadrazil goal.
Finally, Bayern battled Manchester United for the trophy. The German champions found themselves behind at halftime, but that did nothing to stop them. Tanikawa scored her fourth of the tournament with eight minutes to go to level the scores, and four minutes later, Zadrazil unleashed a fiery turning shot into the bottom corner to win the game for Bayern.
Goalkeeper Ana Mahmutović was named Best Goalkeeper of the tournament, while Tanikawa celebrated a double whammy by winning both the Top Scorer and Best Player awards.
The Frauen thus celebrated a perfect end to their most successful season ever, having won the Bundesliga and the DFB-Pokal as well as this tournament. The players will now chase glory for their national teams as the Women’s Euros will be starting next month after a couple of Nations League fixtures.
