Stanway relishes ‘amazing opportunity’ as Bayern Munich begin new season at Allianz Arena | OneFootball

Bayern Munich Women kick off their Frauen-Bundesliga campaign this weekend with a home fixture against Bayer Leverkusen at the Allianz Arena.

More than 50,000 tickets have already been sold, marking a landmark occasion for the club. England international Georgia Stanway says she is relishing the prospect of playing in front of such a crowd.

“I think it’s an amazing opportunity, the fact that we are getting to play at the Allianz. I think this is something that should happen more often.”

“In order for us to do this, we have to play entertaining football. We need to be exciting to watch to get the fans in. To have sold 50,000 tickets so far is unbelievable,” said Stanway.

“Unfortunately, we lost a person within the Allianz community who was helping us daily, called Ilka. Her dream was to try and break the record here at the Allianz.

“She was at the forefront of pushing this game. This is a game that we will dedicate to her. However many fans turn up, we know that she’s watching from above and we’ll be celebrating together.“

Bayer Leverkusen narrowly missed out on the Women’s Champions League places last season, and Stanway is expecting a tough test against their Bundesliga rivals.

“They have the same manager. It doesn’t mean that the tactical situations are going to be the same.That’s why we have Jose and an analysis team.

“We’ll try and see what we can get one up on Leverkusen. They’re going to be feisty. They’re a team that don’t stop working hard and don’t stop running.

“Hopefully, we’ll be able to dominate possession. 90 minutes of football, we don’t know what can happen,” said the English star.

The German champions were knocked out in the quarterfinals of the Women’s Champions League last season, and Stanway is determined to help them go one step further this time around.

“Yes, I think our main focus is to just go one step further. We fell short a few times when it comes to the Champions League,” said Stanway.

“I am not somebody who likes to talk about the end goal. But I like to talk about the process. Taking each game as it comes and putting ourselves in the best possible position for the results to go our way. I think off the back of the Euros, I have definitely got a little bit more hunger.

“Listening to the Arsenal girls and hearing about the successes that they felt and how it felt to lift the Champions League. I would love to be able to do that one day. Whether that is this season, whether that is next season, only time will tell. We will do everything that we can this year to try and get that step forward.“