Momoko Tanikawa came off the bench to score the winner as Bayern Munich earned a 3-2 victory over Manchester United in the first leg of their Women’s Champions League quarter-final.

United had twice fought back to level at Old Trafford, but they had no answer to Tanikawa’s late strike and now have a deficit to overturn if they want to reach the final four.

Bayern immediately hit the front, with Harder racing onto Arianna Caruso’s throughball and holding off Maya Le Tissier to slot her shot past Phallon Tullis-Joyce into the bottom-right corner inside two minutes.

But United did not let their heads drop, with Julia Zigiotti Olme blazing over before Lea Schuller won a penalty when her cross struck the arm of Glodis Viggosdottir.

Le Tissier guided the resulting spot-kick under Ena Mahmutovic in the 24th minute, but both sides struggled to create another clear-cut opening in the first half.

After a quiet start to the second, Harder raced through the wide-open United defence again 71 minutes in, escaping Le Tissier and picking out the bottom corner.

But the hosts took just five minutes to respond, with Hanna Lundkvist getting in front of her defender to nod home a corner.

However, it was Tanikawa – fresh from winning the Women’s Asian Cup with Japan – who proved the difference in the first leg as she curled a long-range strike past Tullis-Joyce with six minutes remaining.

We’re narrowly beaten at Old Trafford, but it’s all to play for next week in Munich pic.twitter.com/eYCFdKnBbx

— Manchester United Women (@ManUtdWomen) March 25, 2026

Data Debrief: Bayern find winning formula on English soil

Each of Bayern’s previous four away matches against English opposition had ended in defeat, but they finally stopped that run in Manchester.

Indeed, it was also their first away knockout-stage win in the competition since the 2020-21 quarter-finals vs Rosengard.

It was a fairly even match between the two sides as momentum continuously shifted, with both teams having four shots on target, though Bayern did test the United goal more often, having 12 shots to their opponents’ nine.