FC Bayern Women kick off 2024 with Granada friendly | OneFootball

FC Bayern Women play their sole friendly match of the winter break as they face Spanish side Granada on Friday, 12 January during their training camp in Alicante. Kick-off at the Pinatar Arena is at 16:00 CET. Entry is free. In memory of Franz Beckenbauer, the players will wear black armbands and there will be a minute’s silence before the action commences.

State of play

The Granada friendly is Bayern’s first game of 2024 as they step up their preparations for their coming challenges in the Bundesliga, DFB Cup and Champions League. The players returned to training on 5 January as the champions of Germany completed their obligatory performance diagnostics. The squad then headed out to Spain for their training camp in Alicante to continue their work before the campaign recommences.

Linda Dallmann takes on two opponents at the training camp in Spain.

The opponent

Granada celebrated promotion to the top-flight Liga F in Spain last season. They are currently second bottom of the standings in 15th place after 13 games. The Andalusian side have managed just two wins in the league so far, with the most recent coming only last weekend with a 3-2 victory away at Real Betis.

Personnel

Alexander Straus’s team arrived at the training camp without long-term injury absentees Carolin Simon (cruciate ligament), Weronika Zawistowska (cruciate ligament), Cecilia Ran Runarsdottir (kneecap), Magdalena Eriksson (metatarsal) and Ana Maria Guzman (knee). The coach is also without defender Tainara in Spain due to family reasons. Straus will look to give as many players as possible some game time against Granada to ensure they are prepared for the matches to come in the second half of the campaign. There are also five youth players from the second team in Juliane Schmid, Eszther Reszler, Carla Schwarz, Paula Rintzner and Laura Gloning who could push for a place during the training camp.

Bayern’s Klara Bühl has been voted Germany Women’s Player of the Year 2023:

Klara Bühl named Germany Women’s Player of the Year

Kett: “We’re looking forward to the game”

Franziska Kett: “We’ve got some very demanding games after the training camp, so it’s important that we implement a lot of what we’ve worked on in a friendly match. We’ve done a lot of tactical work here so we can find ourselves better as a team and then get the second half of the season off to a good start. We’re looking forward to the Granada game, and I think we’re very well prepared.”

Alara Sehitler: “We’re using the Granada game to prepare for the games to come in the second half of the season. Matches are always great, no matter who it’s against. And the first game after the winter break in particular is always nice. We’re looking forward to it.”

Bayern also kicked off the year with a new signing in Momoko Tanikawa:

FC Bayern Women sign Momoko Tanikawa