What to look out for in Women’s Champions League quarter-finals

The Women’s Champions League quarter-finals, which begin this week, include Manchester City, Arsenal, and Chelsea.

Arsenal travel to face Real Madrid in their first leg, while Chelsea and City meet in Manchester in their home matches.

Chelsea and City have met in the League Cup final on Saturday and have a meeting in the Women’s Super League scheduled for the following day. This is Chelsea’s second consecutive meeting of four games at City’s Joie Stadium.

Given Emma Hayes’ accomplishments as Chelsea’s manager during her 12-year tenure, Sonia Bompastor was expected to have a lot of success in place of her predecessors when she took over.

The transition, however, was simple. The Frenchwoman, who won 26 games and drawn just twice, has yet to experience defeat as the Blues boss.

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Chelsea has only won the Women’s Champions League once, but Bompastor has plenty of European experience, winning both times as a player and helping Lyon win the trophy in 2022.

Manchester City have had a frustrating domestic campaign so far, despite pushing Chelsea all the way in the WSL title race last year and losing only on goal difference.

Before this four-game berth against Chelsea, City made the bold decision to fire manager Gareth Taylor and re-hire former manager Nick Cushing on an interim basis.

With only six league games left, City is fourth in the WSL and is 12 points clear of the Blues.

Realistically, Chelsea could be the team to win the Champions League and FA Cup, but City’s chances of winning both of those things could depend on both.

The Women’s Champions League victory for Arsenal is the only other English team to have achieved this.

That was in 2007, though. Since then, they haven’t reached the final.

The Gunners’ group stage got off to a shaky start with a 5-2 defeat at Bayern Munich, the Swedish manager’s final game before resigning.

However, they have had more success since Renee Slegers took over, with Arsenal winning Group C with a total score of 15-4 in their final five group games.

With 18 victories in her 22 games as manager, Slegers has transformed the North London team into a winning force.

Being paired with Real Madrid could be seen as a positive draw for Arsenal because they are the only remaining contenders to have never reached a Champions League semi-final.

It has been almost ten years since a team other than Lyon or Barcelona won the Champions League title, with Frankfurt taking the title in 2015.

After beating Lyon 2-0 in the final of the previous year’s competition, Barcelona are now seeking three victories in a row.

Barcelona can be defeated, though, as Levante and Manchester City showed in the group stages last month.

Lyon, on the other hand, might prove more challenging. With the exception of Reims’ penalty shootout defeat in the Coupe de France, the eight-time champions have not lost any matches this season.

Joe Montemurro has excelled as Bompastor’s replacement at Lyon, just like he has excelled since Hayes left for Chelsea.

The route to the final was now determined and the rest of the Women’s Champions League draw was held on February 7.

Quarter-finals

(All times are GMT)

First leg

18 March: Real Madrid v Arsenal (17: 45), Bayern Munich v Lyon (20: 00)

19 March: Wolfsburg v Barcelona (17: 45), Manchester City v Chelsea (20: 00)

Second leg

26 March: Lyon v Bayern Munich (17: 45), Arsenal v Real Madrid (20: 00)

27 March: Barcelona v Wolfsburg (17: 45), Chelsea v Manchester City (20: 00)

Semi-finals

First leg: 19-20 April

Second leg: 26-27 April

Final