The final week of UWCL group stage competition has been and gone, but trailing in its wake are only the hottest of women’s football takes. Luckily enough, we’ve been flying behind the metaphorical trawler to pick out the best of the weeks’ catch.
From the group stage all the way to the final in Eindhoven, Beyond90 will bring you the three biggest stories from each match week as we find out who will eventually lift that famous ribboned cup.
“We Were All Rooting For You!”
For many the most interesting in this edition of the Champions League, Group C has delivered intrigue in spades, from the first matchweek to the last. Reigning champions Olympique Lyon, beaten comprehensively by Arsenal in their first match, clawed its way back into contention with back-to-back wins against Zürich while holding Juventus to two stalemates in their two contests.
Knowing only a win would guarantee progress, Juventus held its own against Lyon’s full-strength line-up but came nowhere close to troubling the scorers, failing to manage a shot on target from within the OL penalty area across the 90 minutes. With the scoreless result, the Bianconere tumbled out in the group stage, left to rue the loss against Arsenal in early December and unable to fulfil their potential.
Big Numbers On The Big Stage
With all but one group sure of its qualifying teams, and seven of 16 clubs playing for pride, one could be forgiven for thinking that nothing exciting would come of the final matchweek’s fixtures. But how wrong you would be, as incredible scorelines filtered through from across the continent – from Barcelona’s 6-0 win over Rosengård in Catalonia to Wolfsburg defeating St.-Pölten 2-8 on their own patch.
Not only did the teams themselves give the scoreboard operators something to worry about, but the fans did their part too, filing into stadiums from Spain to St.-Pölten in record numbers to produce the first group stage matchweek with three crowds over 10,000. Even Zürich, already eliminated without registering a point, registered their largest-ever women’s crowd with 4264 in attendance in northern Switzerland, while Chelsea wrote a similar piece of history with 10,129 fans on hand to watch the Blues dismantle Paris Saint-Germain in London.
The Quarter-Finals Are Looking Juicy
With the group stage having been and gone, we can now look forward to the pointy end of this year’s European Cup. Through the ups and downs, through the for-and-against of the past six matchweeks, we’ve watched our heroines go toe-to-toe with their opponents on the biggest stage as UEFA’s engravers ready their quills against that famous ribboned trophy.
With no country protection in the knockout stage, some incredible potential ties await: German champions Wolfsburg against rivals Bayern Munich; Barcelona and Olympique Lyon renewing the hostilities from last season’s showpiece event; quarter-final debutantes Roma against Arsenal in their record-setting 15th appearance in the last eight. Teams will also learn their potential path to Eindhoven with the draws for both the quarter- and semi-finals being confirmed on Tuesday night AEDT, meaning European fans can start planning their travel arrangements and praying for victory ahead of fixtures in two weeks time.
Group A
Chelsea 3 Paris Saint-Germain 0
Real Madrid 5 Vllaznia 1
Standings: Chelsea 16 (+18) PSG 10 (+6) Madrid 8 (+3) Vllaznia 0 (-27)
Group B
St-Pölten 2 Wolfburg 8
Slavia Prague 0 Roma 3
Standings: Wolfsburg 14 (+14) Roma 13 (+8) St-Pölten 4 (-15) Slavia 2 (-7)
Group C
Olympique Lyonnais 0 Juventus 0
Zürich 1 Arsenal 9
Standings: Arsenal 13 (+14) Lyon 11 (+4) Juventus 9 (+6) Zürich 0 (-24)
Group D
Bayern Munich 2 Benfica 0
Barcelona 6 Rosengård 0
Standings: Barcelona 15 (+23) Bayern 15 (+7) Benfica 6 (-13) Rosengård 0 (-17)
Top Scorers
7 – Ewa Pajor (Wolfsburg)
5 – Aitana Bonmatí (Barcelona), Cloé Lacasse (Benfica), Sam Kerr (Chelsea)
