Draw pits favourites together
Champions League will have a new finalist in 2019
The throat-slitting gesture made by Greg Dyke, who was then chairman of the Football Association, when England were grouped with Italy and Uruguay in the 2014 World Cup, attracted attention because it was so unusual. Faced with a tough draw, players, coaches and officials normally exude bravado, wary of betraying any sense of trepidation. So it was with the draw for the business end of the UEFA Women’s Champions League.
In the last three seasons only three teams have reached the Final: Lyon, Wolfsburg and Paris Saint-Germain. Of the last eight Finals, Lyon have won five, including the last three, and Wolfsburg two. The odd year out was 2015, when PSG lost to Frankfurt.
However, a sensationally lop-sided quarter-finals draw has now thrust this trio together. Making up the quartet are Chelsea, still to reach the Final of Europe’s premier club competition and having a disappointing season domestically. They are partnered first with PSG then, should they reach the semi-finals, either Lyon or Wolfsburg, whose quarter-final is a repeat of last season’s Final.
Were the English double-winners daunted? Quite possibly in private, but not in public, with manager Emma Hayes declaring: “I think it is a great draw. The best players want to play in the best games, and this is certainly one of them.”
Wolfsburg also put a brave face on a match-up they must have feared. While the German champions beat Lyon in the 2013 Final they have lost to them for the last three seasons, beaten in the Finals of 2016 (on penalties) and 2018 (in extra-time), and the semis in 2017.
The Lady Wolves have also been hit by a serious knee injury to Lara Dickenmann which is likely to rule the Swiss out for months. With the quarter-finals not until March she may be fit to play, but it seems unlikely. Nevertheless, Ralf Kellermann, Wolfsburg’s sporting director, says: “It’s an absolute clash of the titans in Europe – it doesn’t get better.”
As for Lyon, they would probably have preferred an easier passage, but their Norwegian striker Ada Hegerberg tweeted: “Get in! ALLEZ”.
While history suggests the eventual winner will come from this half of the draw, and probably the Lyon/Wolfsburg tie, opportunity knocks for clubs in the other half. One of Bayern Munich, Barcelona, Slavia Prague or LSK Kvinner will reach their first Final. Only Barcelona have ever been in a semi-final before, in 2017.
A Barcelona-Bayern semi would provide some glamour for a competition still fighting to be noticed among the attention lavished on its male equivalent, but is by no means inevitable.
Bayern will be expected to ease past Slavia Prague, the only survivors from the qualifying round. Predominantly Czech with a smattering of North Americans, including former Sunderland defender and Canada international Kylla Sjoman, this is Slavia’s third quarter-final in four years.
The Barcelona/LSK Kvinner tie might be seen as emblematic of the changing face of the women’s game. Scandinavia used to be one of the sport’s stronger regions but LSK are the only such team left and the first Norwegian quarter-finalists in nine years. Prior to 2014 no Spanish side had reached this stage but Barcelona have now done so five seasons in six. LSK will be handicapped by the quarter-finals being played just as the Norwegian season emerges from hibernation and might, by then, have lost their goal-a-game midfielder Guro Reiten.
LSK, who are associated with men’s club Lillestrom, have wrapped up the 2018 league title so at least they know they will be in next season’s competition, unlike Chelsea who will probably have to win the Champions League to feature next term.
At this stage Chelsea’s domestic title
looks like being taken by either Arsenal or Manchester City, neither of whom have Europe as a distraction. Semi-finalists last year, City were knocked out by Atletico Madrid, whose cruel reward was a last-16 tie against Wolfsburg. They lost 4-0 in Germany and 6-0 at home, with Pernille Harder scoring twice in each leg.
The last Italian representative went out in the last 16, Fiorentina being humbled 6-0 at home by Chelsea after a narrow 1-0 loss in London had given them hope. Fran Kirby scored a hat-trick in Florence but Millie Bright received a red card. Some consolation for La Viola came in the 3,000-plus gate for a match played at Stadio Artemio Franchi. Champions Juventus had already gone out, beaten by Brondby whose home leg attracted 8,000-plus, the largest gate of the competition so far this season.
The other notable event in the last 16 was the goal by PSG’s Wang Shuang, at Linkoping, to become the first Chinese scorer in the competition’s history.