Emma Hayes’s side must turn around a deficit if they are to become only the second English team to reach the final The scale of the task faced by Chelsea, who have to overturn a 2-1 away defeat by Bayern Munich in the Champions League semi-final second leg on Sunday, is perhaps best illustrated by a simple statistic. Only twice in the competition’s 20-year history have semi-finalists come back from first-leg defeats to reach the final, and no one has done so in 11 years.In 2010 Turbine Potsdam endured a 1-0 defeat before beating Duisburg 1-0 and progressing in a shootout. Five years earlier Frankfurt lost 1-0 at home against Montpellier but won 3-2 in France to go through on...
Arsenal hold the upper hand in the race for third, the relegation fight is wide open and Chelsea could still win four trophiesA run of four defeats in seven league games has seen Manchester United from being top at Christmas to fourth now, and battling Arsenal for the third and final Champions League place, but beating Spurs 4-1 in a one-sided match will have given them hope. They now need maximum points from their remaining games against Bristol City and Everton and more importantly for the Gunners, who have won their last six in the league and have a massive goal difference advantage, to trip up against West Ham, Everton or Aston Villa. The young England forward Ella Toone scored...
Out on their own with five Champions League titles in a row, the French club are sweeping all before them but remain a microcosm of the broader conversation around female sportPerhaps the moment we all realised that Lyon were going to win the Champions League once again came about seven minutes before half-time, as Lucy Bronze stepped up to take a throw-in. As Bronze waited for the referee’s signal, she started absent-mindedly spinning the ball on the end of her finger, like one of the Harlem Globetrotters to which this all-conquering, lavishly-funded Lyon team is so frequently compared.It was, in a strange way, the perfect emblem of a final that offered only the illusion of closeness. Though Wolfsburg certainly had...
Europe’s two best sides will cross swords in the Women’s Champions League final for the third time in five yearsThem again. From north London to northern Italy and on to northern Spain, via Germany and France, Lyon and Wolfsburg meet in another Champions League final. San Sebastián, the city with the A-list film festival and the greatest concentration of Michelin stars on earth, brings together Europe’s two best women’s football teams, domestic double winners demonstrating they still dominate this competition. Others draw ever closer, PSG and Barcelona taking them to the wire, but only this familiar pair are still standing.When Wendie Renard rose way above the rest to head in the only goal at San Mamés on Wednesday night, dancing...
Clubs can register up to six new players for August tournament which Arsenal must win to get into next season’s competitionIt would be easy to say Uefa’s decision to allow clubs to register up to six new players for the Women’s Champions League quarter-finals undermines the sporting integrity of the competition.To be frank, it fundamentally alters the nature of it. Now, it is very much a mini-tournament that has cut ties with what preceded the Covid-19 shutdown; it is a pre-season cup competition, but with a lot more at stake. Related: Glasgow City's Champions League mountain made steeper by shutdown | Suzanne Wrack Related: Transfers provide a silver lining for WSL and may soon have a Bronze hue Continue reading...