The arrival of a host of stars is great for women’s football but contracts which only last a few months can also be disruptiveTwo games into the Women’s Super League season and we’re starting to see some patterns emerging, with high-quality teams across the division but a few that look a cut above. The standard of foreign players coming into the league this summer demonstrates the way it’s seen now around the world, and will increase the quality still further, though I do have reservations about some of the signings. Related: Manchester City left frustrated by obdurate Brighton display Related: Women’s Super League: talking points from the weekend’s action | Rachel Brown-Finnis Continue reading...
The Chelsea midfielder reflects on last season’s title and how the arrival of more top players is raising the barI will definitely never forget my first Women’s Super League title. My Chelsea teammates and I were asked to join a Zoom call so I logged in from Norway during a camping trip. Emma Hayes came on and, all of a sudden, popped open a bottle of champagne: “We’ve won the league!” It felt so weird to find out we had won it on points per game and, although it was a fantastic reward for all our work, I hope we don’t have to celebrate that way again.We want to repeat the trick in front of our fans, but first we...
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...