For Arsenal, the victory or lap of this year’s Women’s Champions League tournament is more like winning or staying at home because the truncated English season has left the team out of next season’s competition.
The other seven groups of the knockout tournament that will begin on Friday in the northern Spanish Basque Country have already qualified for the Champions League next season. Arsenal has to win it to get back.
“We know in our minds that we have to win this to stay in the Champions League, which is huge for us,” Arsenal lead Caitlin Foord said. “As footballers, you need to play in the Champions League, so it gives us everything you need.
Arsenal will play on Saturday against Paris Saint-Germain in San Sebastian. The winner will face the defending champion Lyon or Bayern Munich, who will play in Bilbao on the same day. The quarter-finals will take place on Friday and face Barcelona against Atletico Madrid and Glasgow City against Wolfsburg.
The last one is scheduled for August 30 in San Sebastian.
Arsenal finished third in the Women’s Super League, which was reduced due to the coronavirus pandemic. Chelsea won the champions and Manchester City finished second.
From the 2021–2022 Champions League season, UEFA will allow 3 groups from the six most sensible European leagues. But for now, the tension is high.
“It’s a smart motivation,” Arsenal captain Kim Little said. “It’s not too much in your career to play those kinds of games, especially with the competitiveness of the league in England right now.”
Arsenal last played in the Champions League in 2014. It is the English team that won the continental trophy, in 2007, when it was called the Women’s Cup.
Arsenal strengthened their defense by hiring Steph Catley and Noelle Maritz, as archer Lydia Williams.
“We know that PSG has the big ones,” Arsenal coach Joe Montemurro said. -a transition. That’s one we’ve identified.
PSG forward Marie-Antoinette Katoto led the French league with goals, Kadidiatou Diani scored 12 and Nadia Nadim eight.
“Sometimes they win and get lost,” Montemurro said.
BAYERN TO THE BEAT
Lyon is relaunching their bid for a fifth consecutive Champions League name against Bayern Munich. The German team finished their domestic season after the coronavirus ceased, took a two-week break and returned to training.
“Now we have a little speed,” Bayern Amanda Ilestedt’s defence said. “It’s a credit to us.”
The French leagues had been cancelled, so Lyon is still getting rid of the rust. They won the French Cup on August 9, but have scored one goal in two matches: forward Ada Hegerberg, obviously absent, is recovering from an LCA operation.
“If he plays, I know who he is and how he plays, but the others are very good too,” Ilestedt said. “We’ll have to be prepared for anything. They have a lot of speed, a lot of talent.”
Bayern have signed Lea Schuller, 22, who has scored goals for German club Essen, and Viviane Asseyi, who has scored 12 goals for Bordeaux in France.
Bayern also joined defender Hanna Glas, who has faced Lyon a lot in their two seasons at PSG.
However, the German lost his captain when midfielder Melanie Leupolz signed for Chelsea.
BACK TO TRAINING
Atletico Madrid resumed education on Monday after concern about the coronavirus arrangements for their quarter-final match against Barcelona in Bilbao on Friday.
The team canceled a friendly attack on August 8 when a user tested positive, and a few days later was suspended when more tests revealed 4 other positive cases.
Atletico said on Monday that the entire team and squad had finished an era of insulation of the house and that the new supervised tests through UEFA had decided that there were no new instances beyond the five positives.
MISMATCH WOLFSBURG
Wolfsburg is a big favourite against Glasgow City on Friday in San Sebastian. The German team played a full national season, while Glasgow played only once in March before the Scottish spring season was cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Wolfsburg won the Champions League trophy in 2013 and 2014. Glasgow has been in the quarter-finals once, in 2015, when it lost 7-0 to PSG.
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