Klara Bühl eyes UWCL title as Bayern Munich prepare to be only German club in the competition | OneFootball

FC Bayern Munich are no strangers to the UEFA Women’s Champions League but this year, they are the only German side competing in the tournament.

Bayern will be looking to push on from last season, where they were eliminated in the semi-finals by Barcelona.

Ahead of their first league stage fixture, Klara Bühl spoke about the club’s ambition, her teammates’ excitement, and the German champions’ preparations for the competition.

Bühl has been at Bayern Munich since 2020, having joined from Bundesliga rivals SC Freiburg. She has since represented the Munich based club just shy of 130 times and won everything there is to win domestically, including the league title five times. In fact, the only competition available to Bayern that Bühl hasn’t won yet, is the UWCL.

Klara Bühl and the UWCL dream

Bühl is not afraid to admit the ambition for Bayern Munich is to be crowned champions of Europe.

“Of course I want to win it,” she said. “I know that for me personally, it’s so important to just enjoy the games as they come. Of course, the further we qualify into the tournament, thoughts will start to enter your mind. But for now, we need to be focussed on being in the automatic qualifying places in the league stage.

“Right now, I’m just excited for the next game. We are working towards making the journey to the next stages as short as possible.”

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Looking back at Bayern’s 2025/26 semi-final defeat to Barcelona, Bühl understands that they needed to get better for this new UWCL campaign.

“We were happy about last campaign. We felt like we showed what we can achieve, felt like we compared well to the other sides. Reaching the semi-finals is good, but for the next season it’s important that we improve in certain areas.

“We need to make sure we improve on our one-on-one duals between players, both offensively and defensively. The UWCL is as good as it gets in terms of quality. We need to have good basics, we have to make the best pass in the final third and create those opportunities.”

Bayern Munich are the only German team in the UWCL

It’s unusual for the UWCL to have just one German side competing at this stage. German teams are inundated with UEFA Women’s Champions League history.

Eintracht Frankfurt have won the competition four times, while Turbine Potsdam and VfL Wolfsburg have won the competition twice each. FCR Duisburg also claimed the title a singular time in 2009, giving the Bundesliga one of the strongest histories in the tournament.

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However, this season sees just Bayern Munich competing for the UWCL title, with Frankfurt and Wolfburg having failed to qualify. Bühl admitted it’s ‘not something they are happy about’.

Germany’s league is ranked the fourth best in Europe by UEFA and Bühl is disappointed that only Bayern have made the league stage of the UWCL.

“We all thought that all three German clubs would be in the league stage of the UWCL. It’s really hard for Germany that only Bayern are in the UWCL. The Bundesliga is really strong, we see that every week. They’ve not qualified though and we can’t change that but it’s not something we are happy about as a German team, but it’s a strong league.”

Facing tough opponents in the UWCL league phase

Bayern have been drawn against difficult opponents in the league stage of the UWCL. They will face Manchester City, Benfica, Real Madrid, PSG, Barcelona and Austrian champions Austria Wien. There are many links between Austria Wien, who have qualified for the first time in their history and Bayern Munich.

“It’s such a cool fixture, we’re really looking forward to that game,” Bühl said.

Austria legend Carina Wenninger played for Bayern Munich from 2007 to 2023, representing the German giants more than 250 times. Wenninger was part of the Austria Wien side who won the ÖFB Frauen Bundesliga last season and will now host her old side in the UWCL.

Carina Wenninger (L) of Muenchen battles for the ball with Ewa Pajor at FC Bayern Campus Platz 1 on March 31, 2019 in Munich, Germany. (Photo by Alexander Hassenstein/Bongarts/Getty Images)

Sarah Mattner also spent time in Austria’s capital, representing First Vienna and eventually SKN St. Pölten, winning the league and playing in the UWCL.

“Of course we talked about this game. Sarah Mattner of course comes from this area and she wished for this draw, so we were all happy for her to be honest. Austria Wien played very well in the qualifying stage. It’s going to be so cool to play against them,” Bühl continued.

“It’s also really exciting for Carina Wenninger, I’m sure. She played for Bayern for a long, long time, so I think it’s really special, such a cool game. Let’s see how it goes but we are all looking forward to it.”

Where can I watch the UEFA Women’s Champions League?

The UEFA Women’s Champions League will be broadcast in full on Disney+ with the first round of fixtures starting on Tuesday, 22nd September.

Bayern Munich will start their UWCL campaign against Manchester City at home in the Sportpark Unterhaching. Tickets for their home fixtures can be applied for here.

 You can watch every UWCL match live on Disney+ as part of existing customer subscriptions.

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