The draw for the group stage of the Women’s Champions League has been friendly for Barcelona, the current champion and one of the four seeds, and not extremely tough for Real Madrid. The blaugranas, who this season will be looking for their fourth orejona —the third in a row— after knocking down Olympique Lyon in the San Mamés final last May, they will face in group D Manchester City —runner-up in the English League—, Austrian Pölten and Swedish Hammarby, who are playing for the first time. once this year the Champions League. The white team, which on Thursday closed its classification from the previous one by defeating Sporting de Portugal at the Alfredo di Stéfano Stadium, has fallen into group B, which also includes the champion of the English Women’s Super League and one of the favorites to win the title, Chelsea; the winner of the Dutch championship, Twente; and another debutant in the top European club competition, Celtic.
This is the third consecutive year that Madrid and the bluesdirected this season by the French Sonia Bompastor, coincide in the same group. In previous matches, Real lost both of their visits to London and drew two at home. However, in their fourth consecutive season in the Champions League, the Whites, who were part of pot 2, have avoided crossing paths with Juventus and Roma, two strong rivals who were in pot 3 and which Barça has also avoided . Madrid, which was born in 2020 with the absorption of Tacón CF, seeks this season to reach the quarterfinals for the second time in its history after an exciting start to the season after the eight high-level signings that arrived in the summer.
Barcelona will also not face each other in the group stage with the German Wolfsburg, two-time champion of the Champions League and who this year has returned to the competition – last year they were surprisingly eliminated in the previous round – with a resounding 12-0 ( 0-7 and 5-0) in the tie against Fiorentina of Vero Boquete. The German team will face Olympique Lyonnais in Group A, the king of the tournament with eight titles, Roma and Galatasaray, a rookie in the Champions League.
In the same previous phase in which Wolfsburg has shone, PSG has foundered. The current semi-finalist and champion of the French Cup fell to Juventus (3-1 and 1-2), which will be measured in group C with Bayern Munich, Mariona Caldentey’s Arsenal and the Norwegian Vålerenga, the fourth debutant that there is this year in the Champions League.
The group stage matches will be played from October 8 to December 18. The first two in each group qualify for the quarterfinals, which will be played from March 18 to 27. The semi-finals will take place from April 19 to 27 and the date of the final, which will be held at the José Alvalade Stadium (Lisbon), is not yet confirmed, but will be May 23, 24 or 25.
