UWCL Briefing: Greenwood adds to Man City injury woes, Russo at double, Wolfsburg’s super sub

On the face of it, the final whistle of matchday five in the Women’s Champions League left little at stake in the last round of fixtures.

All eight quarter-finalists are known, with six of the eight having been decided before this batch of games kicked off. That is the lack of jeopardy that UEFA hopes will end with next year’s move to the league format used in the men’s competition — but results from this week have left three of the four groups with exciting final fixtures between first and second to decide the standings.

Lyon are the only confirmed group-winners, having won five matches from five, the same record as Chelsea and Manchester City. Wolfsburg and Roma had their own head-to-head on Wednesday, with both teams knowing a win could guarantee their spot in the last eight. 

For Wolfsburg, as perhaps with Arsenal, this Champions League campaign has offered an opportunity for redemption after being eliminated in qualifying last season by Paris FC. Yet losses to Lyon and Roma in the group stage had left the two-time winners at risk of group-stage elimination.

There has been a question mark over the side’s ability to continue to hold their position in Germany. Wolfsburg are fourth in the Frauen-Bundesliga, albeit only one point behind the top three sides — Eintracht Frankfurt, Bayern Munich and Bayer Leverkusen — who are all level on points. The loss of Germany international Lena Oberdorf to league rivals Bayern Munich at the end of last season reflected the changing power dynamic of German women’s football. 

But when it mattered, Wolfsburg’s quality shone through — in particular, that of super-sub Sveindis Jane Jonsdottir. The Iceland forward, 23, is out of contract in the summer and injuries restricted her to 11 league games last season. Wolfsburg were 2-1 up when Jonsdottir came on but the four goals she scored in 25 minutes, three after the 85th minute, ensured this was a humiliation for Roma. Given she had previously scored two goals in 17 Champions League games, it was certainly an out-of-character performance but one that would have piqued the interest of any suitors.

In the other group-stage matches on Wednesday night, Chelsea and Real Madrid won to ensure a showdown at the Alfredo di Stefano next week. Chelsea beat Twente 6-1 thanks to goals from six different scorers whilst Real Madrid won 3-0 against Celtic with goals from Signe Bruun and Alba Redondo. Real Madrid have never beaten Chelsea, drawing at home and losing in London during the two previous group-stage campaigns, and Sonia Bompastor’s side, who are unbeaten side this season, only need a draw to top the group. 

It is far more intriguing in Group C and Group D where Arsenal face Bayern Munich and Manchester City travel to Barcelona to decide who finishes as group winners.

Bayern slipped up with a 1-1 draw against Valerenga in week four to make Arsenal’s task a little easier. They will need a win when the German side visit Meadow Park next week, but not by a specific margin, and Arsenal may feel secretly pleased that they will get to play the match at their smaller ground thanks to a fixture clash with the men’s team. The club have struggled to muster big crowds for midweek games at the Emirates and although some fans will miss out on tickets, the atmosphere will be far more intense. 

Interim manager Renee Slegers rotated the side in their 3-1 win over Valerenga in Norway as Mariona Caldentey continued in the midfield pivot with Kyra Cooney-Cross, as she did at the weekend against Aston Villa, while England forward Alessia Russo played off the left in attack. Russo’s two goals cemented the victory, on her 50th appearance for the club, with Frida Maanum back in her home country adding the other. 

It was a professional and comfortable performance from Arsenal, who appear to have moved past the stasis that set in under previous manager Jonas Eidevall. Bayern will be a significant test of that, after Arsenal capitulated in the reverse fixture that began their Champions League campaign, collapsing from 2-2 to lose 5-2 in 13 minutes.

Barcelona, meanwhile, will host Manchester City ready for revenge. The Champions League holders were comprehensively outplayed when they lost 2-0 in England two months ago but the City team who head to Spain will look very different.

City manager Gareth Taylor confirmed after their 2-0 win over St Polten that striker Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw, who has scored 14 goals in 14 games this season, will likely be out for the rest of the year, while captain Alex Greenwood was stretchered off during the match with what looked like a serious knee injury. Lily Murphy, 18, scored her first senior goal and Kerstin Casparij added the second.

Lauren Hemp and Vivianne Miedema are long-term absentees, stretching City’s squad. It is unlikely that they will have the physical capability or technical quality to press Barcelona as they did so impressively in their first meeting. Barcelona’s job will be to overturn a two-goal deficit to top the group on their head-to-head record with City.

The excitement for these fixtures depends on the importance you place on the seeding process for the quarter-finals. The opportunity to avoid Barcelona at that stage has normally been a strong enough incentive for teams to finish first, but there is a possibility that will not even happen. With so much unpredictability, it is hard to know exactly what virtue there is in finishing first or second. Real Madrid would likely be an attractive quarter-final opponent for many, but there is no guarantee they will finish second. 

Instead, this last set of games could represent an opportunity to see how prepared teams are to face high-level opponents in meaningful matches. Large portions of this group stage have been yawningly predictable. The final set of games won’t be.

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

Arsenal, Manchester City, UK Women's Football

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