The competitive imbalance in women’s club soccer in Europe will be underscored this week in the final round of Champions League group-stage matches where little is on the line because of the dominance of the continent’s top teams.
The eight teams advancing to the quarterfinals have already secured their spots with one round remaining: Lyon and Wolfsburg from Group A; Chelsea and Real Madrid from Group B; Bayern Munich and Arsenal from Group C; and Manchester City and Barcelona from Group D.
All are either established clubs in the women’s game — especially Lyon and Wolfsburg, the winners of nine of the 10 Champions League titles from 2011-2020 — or huge European clubs in men’s soccer who have started to really pour money and extra focus into their women’s teams in recent years. Madrid’s women’s team, for example, was only founded in 2020.
The only thing needing to be settled across Tuesday and Wednesday is which teams qualify in first place and which progress as group runners-up, though there might not be any huge benefit either way given the high standard of the teams going through.
The qualified teams play each other this week, with only Group A fully decided as Lyon is guaranteed to finish in first place with Wolfsburg second. The two meet in France on Tuesday.
In Group B on the same night, second-place Madrid hosts first-place Chelsea and can jump above the English team with a win courtesy of a superior goal difference.
On Wednesday, Arsenal hosts Bayern and is one point behind the visitors from Germany in Group C. Bayern just needs to avoid defeat to finish top. Also that night, Barcelona is at home to first-place Man City and must beat the English team by two goals or more to win Group D.
Growing gap
The lopsided results in the fifth round of games highlighted the gap between the so-called bigger and smaller clubs in the Champions League.
The eight teams advancing to the knockout stage all won their games, scoring a combined 33 goals and conceding a combined three. On the same night, Chelsea, Lyon and Wolfsburg each scored six goals.
Barcelona, the defending champion, has scored 23 goals in its five group games so far — including a 9-0 win over Hammarby and a 7-0 thrashing of St. Polten in its last two outings.
Of the teams in third or last place in their groups, only one — Roma — has more than three points.
The Champions League will expand next season to 18 teams in a single standings, with UEFA hoping for same uplift that the men’s Champions League has had since increasing to a 36-team league. Top teams like Man City, Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain have struggled, maintaining a measure of suspense to the final games.
On Monday, UEFA will name the women’s second-tier European competition that launches next season, part of the governing body’s bid to raise standards.
The women’s game at international level is showing a similar imbalance — and that is demonstrated in the teams to have qualified for the 16-nation Women’s European Championship taking place in Switzerland in July.
In Monday’s draw for the tournament’s group stage, only one country is from eastern Europe: Poland.
AP Sports Writer Graham Dunbar in Lausanne, Switzerland, contributed to this story.