Magdalena Eriksson is one of the most decorated female footballers in Europe, and now well into her second season with Bayern Munich. The Swedish international sat down with reporters ahead of the club’s UEFA Women’s Champions League quarter-final against Olympique Lyonnais, which will be broadcast on DAZN.
As eight-time winners of the competition, Lyon are seen by many as the favourite to progress, leaving Bayern to assume the ‘underdog’ status.
“I think it’s natural,” Eriksson suggested. “They have a history in the competition, which is something we respect a lot. We don’t have the same, but we know our qualities and we know that we are right there to compete against these big clubs. We are also a strong team, but we accept that they get this stamp of being the favourites.”
“The way we should spin it in the team, we make it a positive thing for us because we know within ourselves that the difference is not that big. You look at all the quarter-finals and the difference is marginal between all the teams. The ones who ended up first in their groups go in as favourites just because of that. We know, and Lyon knows, that it’s going to be a really tight game. But we also respect Lyon a lot and we understand the amount of qualities that they have from back to front really.”
Bayern had a successful group stage, picking up four wins and a draw, alongside one close game which resulted in a loss against Arsenal. On progressing from the group stage to the knockouts, Eriksson spoke of the “mental shift” required to succeed.
“In the group stage you have time to fix things. If you slip up in one game, you have time to fix it in the next games because the group stage is long and there’s time. But here now it’s crunch time. It’s really important to get that first good result. We have to be ready. We don’t have time for slip ups. That is the biggest difference. We’re extremely hungry about reaching this knockout stage because last year, unfortunately, we missed out on it.”
Embed from Getty ImagesBut the test against Olympique Lyonnais isn’t the only big match coming up in Bayern Munich’s calendar: they’ll face VfL Wolfsburg this Friday in the Frauen-Bundesliga.
“Something that my experience has taught me is to just be in the moment, one game at a time. It’s the biggest cliché in football, but it is the only way you can do it. Right now, it’s hard for me to talk about the Lyon game because I’m so focused on the game on Friday against Wolfsburg.”
“That’s the only mindset that you can have in these tough moments because also every game poses a different challenge and you cannot look too far ahead. But I’m extremely excited going into this period. I’ve been really looking forward to exactly this period of the season because this is when it all happens. This is when you have to be at your best all the time, especially as a defender. Coming up against amazing strikers is what I love to do.”
Bayern have enjoyed a successful season and sit three points clear of VfL Wolfsburg ahead of their meeting on Friday, and Eriksson highlights the club’s consistency as “the key to success for us this season.”
“We’ve worked under Alex – the coach – now for some time. It’s his third season and I think things are really starting to click. Things are really starting to work and it doesn’t really matter who is playing on the pitch. No matter what, the team looks the same. We are playing the same way, the same principles and we are really hard to beat. We’re really strong.”
“What we’ve been working on with Alex for many years now is really coming to place. The relationships within the team are really good and it’s a good mood. I feel like we are coming into this period now really, really well prepared and ready to just give everything and see how far it can take us.”
Bayern Munich will play the first leg of their quarter-final tie at home – which Eriksson explained is “a different thing” to starting away.
“We know that we’re going to have to use this home advantage in the first game,” she told reporters, “but also know that, if we don’t, we can absolutely go to Lyon away and get a result there too. But getting off to a good start is our main target. And we know we are strong at the campus. So we will do everything we can to get a really good result there.”
Bayern Munich will face Olympique Lyon at home on 18 March [20:00 GMT, 21:00 CET], before heading to France for the away leg on the 26 March [17:45 GMT, 18:45 CET].