Defeat at Old Trafford last week meant United were always facing an uphill battle against a Bayern side who have not lost a home match since March 2025.
Even with a full-strength squad, overturning a first-leg deficit against the Frauen-Bundesliga champions would have been a tough ask.
As it was, Skinner was only able to name four outfield players on the bench given United’s extensive injury list, with key players such as Ella Toone and Elisabeth Terland out.
Not that you would have known it based on the way they began the match.
The intensity shown by the visitors seemed to surprise Bayern and the majority of the club record crowd of 25,000 in Munich.
There was an element of luck to Malard’s goal but it was no more than United deserved.
They continued to put Bayern under pressure and, with the hosts’ heads still spinning from the away team’s ferocious start, United remained the more likely for the vast majority of the first 45 minutes.
Half-time allowed Bayern to recover and regroup, though, and it was a different game after the break as the Red Devils’ first-half exertions took their toll.
“We’ve got 45 minutes of really high-level football and the second half, it’s just down to fatigue and tiredness,” Skinner told Disney+.
“They’ve not stopped running. They were doing everything they can.
“Bayern rested seven [players] at the weekend and then came into this game fresh. You could see energy was the difference.
“We knew how to beat Bayern in the first half and we couldn’t do it quick enough in the second half.”
With England midfielder Georgia Stanway pulling the strings and Dallman, Momoko Tanikawa and Franziska Kett combining nicely behind Harder, a Bayern goal soon seemed inevitable.
Turner and Maya le Tissier led a brave rear-guard action but with Malard, who had caused Bayern such trouble early on, tiring, they could not get out.
That both goals came from set-pieces will frustrate Skinner and his team but the overriding sense will be of what might have been had they had even a couple more options off the bench.
