Women's Champions League Performance Insights: Set up to succeed – how Bayern and Man City unleashed their full-backs
Tuesday, September 29, 2026
Article summary
UEFA's game insights unit explores the structural and relational factors which enabled the full-backs to be the difference in Bayern's thrilling draw with Manchester City.
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Full-backs accounted for four of the 11 goals scored on the opening night of the UEFA Women's Champions League league phase – an eye-catching 36%.
Two of those goals came in the 2-2 draw between Bayern München and Manchester City, a Matchday 1 thriller bookended by strikes from Giulia Gwinn and Carlotta Wamser.
The same wide areas which the City and Bayern full-backs exploited in Unterhaching – exemplified by Gwinn and Wamser's goals alongside Kerstin Casparij's part in City's opener – provided rich material for UEFA's game insights unit.
Not only did both teams profit from full-backs in advanced positions; it was the differing approaches they took that warranted attention.
Bayern look right to Gwinn
Bayern right-back Gwinn underlined her attacking influence with her 50th club career goal. She created an earlier chance for team-mate Klara Bühl and the video below shows how Bayern's structure – a core of two central defenders, two central midfielders and four floating players in front – allowed her to do so.
"Gwinn was the wide point of the attack to the right while Bühl coordinated her movements with left-back Franziska Kett," noted UEFA Technical Observer Martin Sjögren. "Bayern were compact in defending and in possession they controlled the central areas, enabling them to penetrate centrally then go outside."
Initially the two full-back pairings were deployed in areas that suited José Barcala's side, with City unable to progress frequently with the ball from the back. However, as the graphic indicates, the picture changed after half-time, heralded by Beth Mead's goal.
City go the long way round
The second video demonstrates how the visitors earned the right to really utilise their full-backs by moving the ball as a team and playing around Bayern. This prevented the hosts applying the same sustained pressure, Mead's strike coming from such a passage of play.
It is facilitated by the run and cross of Casperij, who makes the difference by recognising a team-mate coming inside to attract the Bayern full-back, as well as the unfolding situation, and goes high and wide. This excellence in the relational aspect chimes with City coach Andrée Jeglertz's pre-match comments about his team's problem-solving.
Finishing touches
The third video emphasises the composure and technique of the two goalscoring full-backs. Player of the Match Gwinn applies a striker's finish, lifting the ball over the goalkeeper after providing the width and advancing when her winger moved inside. Wamser's subsequent equaliser, going for the near post, hinges on anticipation of the recovering defender's movement.
Tellingly, both are decisive game situations involving full-backs – and the finishing touches detailed above represent another feature of the previously mentioned evolving role of the full-back.
Coaching reflection: Maximising full-backs' attacking impact
UEFA Technical Observer Lluís Cortés recommends giving players solutions rather than fixed movements, inviting full-backs to adapt their positioning and decisions by:
- Recognising team-mates' movements; coordinating positioning accordingly
- Recognising opponents' movements; understanding spaces available to explore
- Recognising solutions on the ball; making decisions to either pass to feet to progress, pass into space, or maintain possession.
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