With the men’s World Cup reaching its desert crescendo and the UEFA winter break around the corner, the Women’s Champions League group stage hierarchy is finally taking shape. With unlikely runs of form and changes at the top, are we witnessing history in the making?
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.
Barça Beaten By Brilliant Bayern Breakthrough
22 years is a long time in football: longer than most professional careers, longer than some some women’s football leagues have existed, and certainly longer than over half of Bayern Munich’s current team have been following the game. And now after two decades of waiting those Bayern players have made history, becoming the first since the club won promotion to the Frauen-Bundesliga in 1999/2000 to defeat a Spanish team in the Champions League proper.
In the end, Bayern made it look easy: goals inside the first quarter-hour to Klara Bühl and Lina Magull laid the foundation for a patient counter-attacking performance, conceding two-thirds of possession to their Catalan opponents and registering just five attempts on target. But possession is only what you make it, and from those five attempts, Bühl, Magull, and later Lea Schüller made Barcelona pay, before Geyse’s late consolation goal kept the scoreline to a respectable 3-1. The Blaugrana might still be favourites to top Group D, but no matter whether finishing first or second, Bayern will be ready in waiting for whomever they draw in the next round.
Wolfsburg Leading The Pack
Having produced yet another business-like performance at the Allerpark to defeat Roma, two-time European champions Wolfsburg are the first side confirmed as having progressed to the knock-out stage of the 2022-23 tournament. Despite losing Dutch midfielder Jill Roord to an ankle injury inside a quarter-hour, the German champions lead 2-1 at the half-time interval thanks to goals to Polish striker Ewa Pajor and substitute Sveindís Jane Jónsdóttir.
With Lena Lattwein adding a third just after the break before another Pajor goal only seconds later, Roma could only sit and watch as Wolfsburg controlled the match deep into the second half, ringing the changes and keeping legs fresh for their exertions next match as they ran out 4-2 winners. While the Italians will be pleased to have scored a second late on, Die Wölfinnen will be the more comfortable of the two, and will know what’s required to top the group before kick-off against St.-Pölten in matchweek five.
They Couldn’t… Could They?
Drawn into an incredibly tough group with little Champions League history of its own, Real Madrid was tipped by many in the know as a team sure of a group-stage exit this season. While Los Merengues qualified for the quarter-finals in 2021-22, its path was smoothed by weaker opponents in the round-robin – specifically the league champions of Iceland and Ukraine – before the Capital side was eventually swept aside by its all-powerful Catalan rivals in Barcelona.
This campaign however looks and feels different; having lost Swedish maestra Kosovare Asllani to Milan, Madrid have signed midfielders Caroline Weir and Sandie Toletti, Madrid shoring its previously-soft centre while maintaining attacking creativity and passing range, helping central striker Esther González as she looks to add to her four goals this campaign. Now, with group leaders Chelsea almost assured of a knock-out berth, Real Madrid will be looking to cause an immense upset by beating Paris Saint-Germain in the French capital on matchweek five to ensure Group A’s final-day crescendo will be a thrilling one.
Group A
Vllaznia 0 Paris Saint-Germain 4
Real Madrid 1 Chelsea 1
Standings: Chelsea 10 (+11) PSG 7 (+8) Madrid 5 (±0) Vllaznia 0 (-19)
MW5 (17 Dec): Vllaznia vs Chelsea, Paris Saint-Germain vs Real Madrid
Group B
St-Pölten 1 Slavia Prague 1
Wolfsburg 4 Roma 2
Standings: Wolfsburg 10 (+8) Roma 7 (±0) St-Pölten 4 (-4) Slavia 1 (-4)
MW5 (17 Dec): Wolfsburg vs Slavia Prague, Roma vs St-Pölten
Group C
Olympique Lyonnais 4 Zürich 0
Arsenal 1 Juventus 0
Standings: Arsenal 10 (+7) Lyon 7 (+3) Juventus 5 (+1) Zürich 0 (-11)
MW5 (16 Dec): Arsenal vs Olympique Lyonnais, Juventus vs Zürich
Group D
Bayern Munich 3 Barcelona 1
Rosengård 1 Benfica 3
Standings: Barcelona 9 (+13) Bayern 9 (+1) Benfica 6 (-7) Rosengård 0 (-7)
MW5 (16 Dec): Rosengård vs Bayern, Benfica vs Barcelona
Top Scorers
6 – Ewa Pajor (Wolfsburg)
4 – Sam Kerr (Chelsea), Aitana Bonmatí (Barcelona), Geyse (Barcelona), Melvine Malard (Lyon), Cloé Lacasse (Benfica)
