The group stage of this season’s UEFA Ladies’s Champions League culminated in dramatic vogue for all three English sides. Regardless of Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester Metropolis all having already certified for the quarter-finals, the WSL nonetheless had first place of their respective teams to play for. Chelsea got here from behind to beat Actual Madrid 2-1 and be a part of Lyon as the one crew with an ideal file to date on this season’s competitors, whereas Arsenal got here out on high after a 3-2 thriller with Bayern Munich.
Manchester Metropolis nonetheless weren’t so profitable, with a tricky rematch towards Barcelona. The Catalan facet have been 3-0 winners, which means they completed high of their group due to a superior objective distinction in video games between the 2 sides.
There isn’t a nation safety within the quarter-finals so Chelsea or Arsenal might face Manchester Metropolis within the subsequent spherical. The draw will happen on February seventh with first legs being performed on March 18th/nineteenth and second on the twenty sixth/twenty seventh. First positioned groups within the teams can be drawn at dwelling for the second leg…
Slegers and Russo proceed Arsenal revival
Arsenal’s dwelling win over Bayern Munich was not only a reversal of fortunes from the reverse fixture however was emblematic of their improved kind underneath interim supervisor Renee Slegers.
An eighty fifth minute Mariona Caldentey penalty secured the comeback from 2-1 all the way down to 3-2, an enormous enchancment on the 5-2 defeat suffered of their earlier assembly underneath Jonas Eidevall. The three factors make sure that Arsenal end high of their group, which implies they’ll keep away from Chelsea and Barcelona within the subsequent spherical.
Instrumental to this turnaround was Alessia Russo. Scoring her seventh objective in six video games, the ahead was a key a part of Arsenal’s construct up within the first half, dropping deeper and changing into a key level of contact as Arsenal transitioned from defence to assault.
Russo led the entrance line by the top of the second half, after Stina Blackstenius’ substitution, however in each circumstances led the Arsenal press that was so necessary in disrupting Bayern.
Having not began life at Arsenal fairly as fiercely as many followers had hoped or anticipated since her switch in 2023, Russo is more and more filling the expectations that have been positioned upon her.
Whereas Arsenal didn’t handle to utterly nullify the Bayern assault, they gained the set piece battle in a sport that didn’t function a single open play objective out of the 5.
The win is Slegers’ tenth since taking up from Eidevall, the crew remaining unbeaten in that point. The everlasting position going to anybody else is changing into more and more unlikely.
Winter break coming at time for Metropolis
It was at all times going to be a tricky ask for Manchester Metropolis’s injury-decimated facet to repeat their spectacular efficiency towards Barcelona on matchday 1. There have been six modifications between the beginning XI again in October and the one on the Olympic Stadium in Barcelona, with key gamers Bunny Shaw, Lauren Hemp and Alex Greenwood all lacking.
Metropolis have been underneath stress from the beginning with 20 yr previous goalkeeper Khiara Keating maintaining them within the match for a lot of the first half. Keating seems to have taken again her beginning spot for Metropolis, having been dropped firstly of the season for Ayaka Yamashita, and her shot stopping prowess was clear to see. It might have taken a miracle to carry on although and Claudia Pina first broke Metropolis’s resolve within the forty fourth minute, earlier than Aitana Bonmati and Alexia Putellas ensured Barcelona would end in high spot with targets on 57 and 69 minutes.
The largest disappointment for Metropolis can be how a lot of the stress they discovered themselves underneath was self-inflicted. With out Shaw, Metropolis shouldn’t have the identical sort of bodily presence to carry up the ball, with supervisor Gareth Taylor opting to make use of midfielder Jess Park as his striker with ahead Mary Fowler out broad. In consequence, Metropolis have been repeatedly enjoying out from the again — and straight into hassle. Bodily spent as a squad, the counter press that was so efficient within the first match towards Barcelona was nowhere to be seen. It was solely when the sport was lengthy past them that they confirmed any actual try to get again into it.
Metropolis’s purpose on this group would at all times have been to qualify for the subsequent spherical, given their failure to even make it this far within the competitors lately. Few would have anticipated them to have even been ready to high the group when the unique draw was made. The winter break has come at a vital time for them, and the hope can be they appear far nearer to their October selves by the purpose March comes round.
Macario on the spot to avoid wasting Chelsea extra Madrid woe
Actual Madrid’s Estadio Alfredo di Stefano had not beforehand been a contented searching floor for Chelsea, with the London facet having didn’t win on their two earlier visits. When Hannah Hampton’s save from Caroline Weir’s shot looped over her head and into the again of the web, it appeared like their dangerous relationship with the stadium was set to proceed.
Sonia Bompastor was as soon as once more compelled to make a half-time substitution together with her Chelsea facet labouring to create something, as Madrid defended their 1-0 lead, figuring out that in the event that they held on it might be sufficient for them to high the group. That might have been a substantial achievement given final season’s bottom-placed end in a gaggle that contained Chelsea, BK Hacken and Paris FC.
Because it was, the introduction of Catarina Macario proved essential. She had the ball behind the web inside a minute of approaching, however it was appropriately flagged offside, earlier than lacking a one-v-one alternative. She made no mistake from the penalty spot, nonetheless, when she was introduced down by Madrid fullback Olga Carmona. 5 minutes later, within the 56th minute, she scored one other penalty after Carmona was adjudged to have dealt with the ball.
“Catarina Macario modified the sport and confirmed tonight that she is a world-class participant,” mentioned Bompastor in her post-match press convention. “I’m actually happy together with her efficiency. I do know Catarina very well and I do know her potential. I do know what she will deliver to the crew.”
”She’s nonetheless in a course of the place she’s constructing her health. We’re working with the efficiency workers to ensure she will play extra minutes, and present her greatest degree.
”For the 45 minutes she performed tonight, that is what we count on from her, however we additionally want to assist her get again to her greatest health.”
Very similar to Metropolis, Chelsea have appeared like a crew operating on fumes in the direction of the top of December, with the winter break being a lot welcomed by Bompastor. As gamers like Macario proceed to work on their health, the membership will even be hoping that longer-term absentees like Lauren James and naturally, Sam Kerr, could make a return in 2025.
This text initially appeared in .
Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester Metropolis, UK Ladies’s Soccer
2024 The Athletic Media Firm