LONDON — Manchester City will face the UEFA Women’s Champions League holders, Barcelona, in their first group stage campaign. The draw placed Arsenal in with Bayern Munich and Juventus, and put Chelsea and Celtic together in a group featuring Real Madrid.
City’s last outing in the Champions League proper came in 2020-21, when they suffered a 4-2 aggregate defeat by Barcelona in the quarter-finals.
The group stage was introduced the following season and City has since twice been eliminated by Madrid in qualifying.
Two teams will progress from each of the four groups and City will be the favourites to go through with Barcelona, after also being drawn with the Austrian club St Polten and the Swedish side Hammarby.
City qualified with an 8-0 aggregate defeat of Paris FC, who knocked out Arsenal and Wolfsburg on their way to last season’s group stage.
There are three English teams in the group stage for the first time, Arsenal coming back from a 1-0 defeat in the first leg against the Swedish side Häcken to progress with a 4-0 home win.
The Gunners meet two familiar faces in Group C in their 2022-23 group-stage opponents Juventus and quarter-final opponents Bayern, whom they defeated 2-1 on aggregate before losing to Wolfsburg. The Norwegian champions, Vålerenga, complete the group.
Chelsea received an automatic place in the group stage and could not face any of their fellow pot one sides (Barcelona, Bayern or Lyon) or another English team, meaning only Madrid and Wolfsburg could be drawn against them from pot two.
Chelsea has the kindest of the groups, facing Madrid, the Dutch champions, Twente, and Celtic. This is the first time a Scottish team has reached the group stage, although Glasgow City twice reached the quarter-finals in the old knockout format.
Lyon and Wolfsburg, who have met in three finals, are in Group A with Roma and Galatasaray.
The first group games will take place on October 8-9 and the last on December 17-18. The final will be held in Lisbon between May 23 and 25, with the date to be confirmed.
Arsenal crushed Sweden’s Haecken 4-0 at home to secure a 4-1 aggregate victory and Italy’s Juventus notched a 5-2 aggregate win over French club Paris St Germain as both teams qualified for the women’s Champions League group stage.
Arsenal, who missed out on last season’s group stage, went in front through Lia Waelti midway through the first half and the Swedish resistance crumbled, allowing Mariona Caldentey to add a second before the break.
Beth Mead kept the momentum going by scoring early the second half and Norwegian midfielder Frida Maanum added a fourth to see them English side safely through, Reuters reported.
Juventus scored in the second minute to add to their two-goal cushion from the first leg, and although PSG equalised from the penalty spot early in the second half, Barabara Bonansea struck again for the Italians to secure their progression.
AS Roma thumped Switzerland’s Servette 7-2 away to complete a 10-3 aggregate win, and last season’s English Super League runners-up Manchester City puts three past Paris FC at home to complete 8-0 aggregate rout and book their spot in the group stage.
Elsewhere, Christine Sinclair, one of the founding players for the Portland Thorns in the National Women’s Soccer League, announced that she retiring from the game.
Sinclair will finish out the season with the Thorns, who plan to honor her before the final regular-season home game on Nov. 1.
The 41-year-old Sinclair retired from the Canadian national team last year, finishing her international career as the world’s top goal scorer among both women and men with 190 goals.
Sinclair is among just three active players in the NWSL who have played for the same team since the league launched in 2013.
She announced her retirement on social media. “For the last 11 years it has been an honor to be part of the Portland Thorns organization. The club that showed the world what is possible when women’s sports are invested in,” she wrote.
“As I finish out this last ride, I want to say what a privilege it has been to represent this unique, beautiful and passionate city that I will always call home.”
Sinclair also wrote that she plans to continue “growing the game that I love while inspiring the next generation.”
She helped the Thorns win the inaugural NWSL championship before adding additional titles in 2017 and 2022. She scored Portland´s first-ever goal in a match against FC Kansas City on April 13, 2013.
She has scored a club-record 64 regular-season goals with the team, ranking her third all-time in the league. She has played in a Portland-record 195 games, including 176 starts.
She has 79 goals across all competitions with the Thorns.
With the Canadian national team, Sinclair won a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics. She earned bronze medals at both the 2012 and 2016 Games.
