UEFA Women's Champions League - great soccer with real champions

Have you ever wondered what it's like to go to a women's soccer game? Who goes there? Is there beer? What's the atmosphere like? Because let's face it, when we look at the attendance figures for women's soccer, too many of you can't have been there yet.

We dared the daring experiment and started an expedition to the campus in the north of Munich. We, that was 15 guys (yes, unfortunately we were really only men), employees and friends of B42. All of them had been active themselves at one time, some of them even "in the higher classes", and all of them were still professionally connected to soccer and therefore had a certain soccer expertise. And one or two 1860 fans were also there.

The occasion: FC Bayern Munich against Olympique Lyon. Champions League, Wednesday evening, floodlights. The stage was set for a perfect night of soccer. 

The journey: by subway and bus - the new Bayern campus is a bit out of the way. Too well connected to say it was inconvenient, but we weren't really in Munich anymore. So almost like the Allianz Arena...

But here, too, the fans are streaming towards the entrance. According to the first impression, they are on average more female, younger and less alcoholized than in men's soccer. The disadvantage: there is no really loud singing anywhere, the acoustic warm-up program is limited. The advantage: it really does feel a bit like a living room. Hardly any or no police, everyone friendly and relaxed, not a bad ambience for a relaxed Wednesday evening outing.

The entrance is expectedly uncomplicated and after five minutes we enter the small stadium on the Bayern campus. The stands are already well filled and even a whole coach from Lyon has made itself at home in one of the corners. Bonsoir!

On the way to our seats, we pass the first food stand. There is beer, mulled wine, soft drinks and popcorn. A somewhat unusual mixture, but the most important thing for us was there. Equipped with the elixir of life of soccer fans, we go to the seats.

There, red and white gossip cards are ready for us. This aroused only muted enthusiasm among the soccer purists among us, but the choreo that we created with them at the entrance on the back straight looked very appealing. And by halftime, we had also discovered the large kiosk for beer AND bratwurst.

The match begins and what we see over the next 90 minutes is not a fireworks display of goalmouth action, but it is extremely high class. Two disciplined top teams don't give each other an inch, logically the only goal comes from a standard. And as was aptly remarked on TV: "The stadium is shaking a bit!"  

The atmosphere in the stands is very good during the entire match anyway. The fans do their best to cheer on the teams for 90 minutes. It all seems a bit more relaxed and less aggressive than in men's soccer. The sport is simply in the foreground and the nearly 2,000 spectators are fully involved and having fun.  

In the final seconds of injury time, Lyon almost equalizes, and when the final whistle blows, the stadium erupts in jubilation. We stay for the lap of honor of the Bayern players, drink our last beer and slowly make our way out. There we have a short team meeting and a round of conclusions.

The tenor: that was a really good soccer game and was just a lot of fun. 

Our brand ambassadors Lina Magull and Julia Simic have repeatedly commented on the lack of appreciation here with us in recent weeks and months. How much we can learn from other countries and why these constant quality comparisons with men's soccer make little sense.