Two decades after its debut, the UEFA Women’s Champions League will feature a 16-team group stage for the first time this season as Barcelona begin their title defense in an all-new tournament.
Crowned champions after defeating Chelsea in clash of first-time finalists last May, Barcelona are heavy favorites to advance from a class including 2007 winners Arsenal and two newcomers, Hoffenheim and Danish club Koge.
Holders can count on Alexia Putelas, UEFA’s women’s player of the year, who most recently signed an extension with Barcelona until 2024, Dutch stars Leakey Martens and the prolific Jenny Hermoso.
Barcelona won their second consecutive Spanish title last season, winning 33 of 34 matches and scoring 167 goals. He started the new campaign in the same vein with five out of five wins, scoring 35 times and winning just once.
The recruitment of four-time Olympian and two-time World Cup winner Tobin Heath marked Arsenal’s return to Europe’s elite competition for just the second time in eight seasons.
Hoffenheim gives Germany three delegates – along with perennial contenders Wolfsburg and Bayern Munich – while Koge breaks the Brndby-Fortuna Hjöring’s monopoly in his first season in Denmark’s top flight.
French giants Lyon saw their five-year European rule come to an end by Paris Saint-Germain in the quarter-finals last season, but they have since replaced goalkeepers Christian Endler and Signe Brun against their home rivals, as well as Danielle van de Donk. Brought it
Yet the most important news for Lyon is the recovery of 2018 Ballon d’Or winner Ada Hegerberg. The Norwegian could return after 20 months against Swedish club Haken on Tuesday.
The 26-year-old attacker has been sidelined since January 2020 after suffering a cruciate ligament rupture in his right knee and then a left tibia stress fracture, which was not initially known.
Hagerberg, a five-time Champions League winner with Lyon, is the all-time record scorer in the competition with 53 goals.
Lyon will face Bayern, who last reached the semi-finals and were one of four teams to qualify directly, and Benfica, who made only a women’s team debut in 2018. They are the first Portuguese club to reach the last 16.
Real Madrid make European bow
English champions Chelsea hosted two-time champions Wolfsburg in their opening group fixture. Emma Hess’s team defeated the Germans 5–1 on aggregate in last season’s quarter-finals.
Italian champions Juventus have advanced past 32 in Europe for the first time in the last four years. They have an added incentive to do well in the final at the Allianz Stadium in Turin.
Swiss outfit Cervet are also in uncharted territory after winning their first Super League title.
Real Madrid, in their second season in existence after capturing CD Taccone, attracted attention by dumping Manchester City in qualifying.
The prize for the Spaniards at the start of the Champions League is PSG, a group with Ukraine’s WFC Kharkiv and Breedablik – the first Icelandic team to make it to the group stage of a men’s or women’s UEFA club competition.
According to UEFA, formerly played in home and away knockout ties from the last 32, clubs in the group stage will receive a minimum of 400,000 euros ($465,000) – five times more than in the first round of 16.
The winner will receive up to €1.4 million, with UEFA paying a total of €24 million to participating clubs or a ‘solidarity payment’ to non-competing clubs.
In contrast, clubs qualifying for the group stage of the men’s Champions League will earn a minimum of €15.64 million.
If a club wins every group match and wins the trophy in St Petersburg, it will receive 85.1 million Euros in prize money, excluding TV earnings based on payouts and UEFA rankings.
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