Women’s Champions League - Treble-Winning Chelsea Look to Finally End European Woes
by Joseph King
New season, new structure
The top prize in women’s club football is back with the return of the UEFA Women’s Champions League this week. Tuesday saw a couple of big names going at it and Wednesday will see another set of intriguing fixtures. First, let’s take a quick refresher on some of the important facts regarding the competition this year:
Women’s Champions League fast facts:
- Format: 18-team, single league
- Qualification: top 4 to round of 16, 5th-12th compete in playoff
- Defending champions: Arsenal (second title)
- Record winners: OL Lyonnes (8)
- Debut clubs in 2025-26: Manchester United, OH Leuven
- 2025-26 final venue: Ullevaal Stadion (Oslo)
The 2025-26 season sees a change to the Swiss system to the model utilised in the men’s Champions League. In place of the 4 groups of 4 teams last year, this season sees an increase in the playing pool to 18 teams and has the clubs placed in a single league structure. Each team plays 8 games (4 home and 4 away) with the top 12 qualifying.
There are five games on the docket today and we’ve highlighted the two most interesting below.
Chelsea vs FC Twente
Chelsea 2024-25 season results
| Competition | Record (W-D-L) | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Women's Super League | 19-3-0 | Champions |
| FA Cup | 5-0-0 | Champions |
| FA Women's League Cup | 3-0-0 | Champions |
| UEFA Women's Champions League | 7-0-3 | Semi-finals |
| Combined | 34-3-3 | N/A |
After a sustained spell of dominance at the top of the English game, which included six straight WSL titles and an invincible season last year en route to a domestic treble, Chelsea will be expected to deliver the goods on the European stage this year. They had to witness London rivals Arsenal win their second UWCL title last season and the Gunners remain the only English side to have ever lifted the trophy.
Chelsea crashed out in the semi-finals last season to Barcelona in a humiliating 8-2 aggregate defeat. The Blues were beaten in both legs last season, accounting for two of their three total defeats in the campaign across all competitions. Barcelona have well and truly proven to be Chelsea’s bogey team over the last five years, knocking them out in the semi-finals in a shocking three consecutive seasons.
Barcelona also beat Chelsea in their only finals appearance in the 2020-21 season.
If they are to finally conquer Europe, there’s a good chance they will have to go through Barcelona again at some point with many of the best online betting sites listing the Catalan side being listed as the top favourites.
FC Twente have been regular competitors in this competition over the years, owing to their sustained stranglehold over the women’s Eredivisie, where they’ve won five of the last six titles. They’ve fallen short in Europe, however, only ever making it to the round of 16 and only making it to the group stage twice in the last five years. These two sides faced off in the group stage last year, during which time Chelsea dominated, winning 6-1 at home and 3-1 away.
Wolfsburg vs PSG
Wolfsburg have a strong pedigree in this competition but there is the sense that their moment in the sun has passed. Die Wölfinnen were arguably the best team in women’s football 10-15 years ago, during which time they lifted two straight UEFA Women’s Champions League trophies (2013, 2014). Since then, they’ve continued to make deep runs in the competition but have had to settle for the runners-up position four times (2016, 2018, 2020, 2023).
Last season, Wolfsburg were blown out of the water in the quarter-finals by Barcelona, losing both legs en route to a 10-2 aggregate loss. It won’t do them any favours this time around that they had to watch their best player, Jule Brand, make the switch to OL Lyonnes in the summer.
Will PSG finally get over the hump and lift their first UWCL title?
After a 10 year run which saw PSG make the final twice and the semi-finals five times, they disastrously failed to qualify for the group stage last season. They’re back this time, but with their last trip to the final coming in 2016-17 and their last (and only) Division 1 league title coming in 2020-21, it’s undeniable that the Parisians have regressed in recent years.
They’ve also had to deal with the departure of their best players, often to rivals OL Lyonnes. The most recent was club record goalscorer Marie-Antoinette Katoto, who departed for Les Fenottes this summer.
