#c: uefa women's champions league

[batlleonafc]

She’s a scab. She only cares about herself and what she can personally gain. She let her “friends” take the fall more than once now so she could get a world cup and continue to push that she’s the best player in the world when in reality she played like absolute dog shit and really that second ballon dor shouldn’t have gone to her in the 1st place. She’s just trying to stay relevant sorry that I’m giving you guys the truth 🤷‍♀️

Welcome to @handmeascalpel's ted talk, I'm your host @batlleonafc buckle up and enjoy the ride

Hello, anon. I've read everything you've mentioned. Do you have any evidence to support your claims? Considering that I'm reading this now, you don't. So, let me present the evidence I have. If you understand after this, great. If not, I can't stop people from forming their own opinions.

Exhibit A:

You said, "she only cares about herself and what she can personally gain."

On September 1, 2022, Alexia tweeted in support of Irene Paredes when the RFEF essentially blamed her for the players' opposition to the federation. Alexia was injured at the time and wasn't even in camp or eligible for a call-up. She was the first to tweet, sparking the revolution against the RFEF.

Ironically, on September 23 of the same year, exactly one year ago, Alexia was the first to post the Las15 statement, stating that the players wanted a "firm commitment for a professional project" and expressing their unhappiness that private conversations with the federation were leaked.

Exhibit B:

You said, "she let her friends take the fall more than once so she could get a World Cup."

As I mentioned earlier, Alexia was injured and therefore ineligible for a call-up. So her statement and email were never considered valid.

Every statement has always been posted by her first because she has a large following. She has consistently spoken out loudly and clearly about the problems. She never let friends take any fall. More proof is attached below.

She went to the World Cup because she was fit and couldn't escape sanctions, in case you forgot about them. I'd like you to tell me how many players who came back from an ACL injury immediately played well, or maybe just give me some names.

#seacabo was started by Alexia, and she took the lead for everything. It's not hard to find this evidence. Regardless of what people like you want to say about her, both on and off the pitch, you can see what kind of person she is.

Exhibit C:

You say, "that second Ballon d'Or shouldn't have gone to her in the first place."

Who do you think should have won it then? I'd be happy to hear your answer.

But since you brought up the Ballon d'Or, let me share a few things:

Official stats from the 2021/22 season:

La Liga Femenina:

- 26 games played.

- 18 goals scored.

- 16 assists.

Copa de la Reina:

- 4 games played.

- 4 goals scored.

- 1 assist.

Supercopa de España:

- 2 games played.

- 1 goal scored.

- 1 assist.

UEFA Women's Champions League (UWCL):

- 10 games played.

- 11 goals scored.

- 3 assists.

Regarding the Ballon d'Or voting, she only missed out on 29 days, equivalent to one tournament (the Euros). Nobody came close to her stats, and she's a midfielder. These stats are only for her club. Her national team stats are just as impressive, as she has been crucial in every single match, not just easy ones. She essentially surpassed her own record from the previous season when she won the Ballon d'Or. In short, she deserved it.

There's more to a player than just stats, especially for defenders. But the stats Alexia has as a midfielder are outstanding.

Exhibit D:

Finally, you said, "she's just trying to stay relevant." Sorry to say, but she doesn't have to say anything to stay relevant.

She uses her influential platform to talk about what's true and important, unlike many players. Ramona Bachmann is a good example, and even Athenea, for that matter.

I hope you've learned something today, anon. If not, good luck with your opinion of Alexia. You might just look foolish for hating on her.

Thank you for listening to @handmeascalpel's ted talk I hope you learned something today!

[redhairedwolfwitch]

Old Home versus New Home - Barcelona Femení x Reader

You probably should have been paying attention to the screen streaming the UEFA Women's Champions League group stage draw, but instead you were staring into space, hoping that Barcelona would not play against one team in particular.

That one team, who you assumed were fully aware of why you had requested a transfer. After the person you were dating admitted to still being in love with her ex, left your apartment shortly after breaking up with you. The last thing she said was ‘see you at training’ as you stood in your living room, frozen. Your heart shattering into pieces as she shut the door behind her, leaving her key on the side table.

Just thinking about that team sent you back into that moment, standing in the living room frozen until warm tears dripping down your cheeks felt so uncomfortable that you swiped at your face.

But you weren’t there. You weren’t in London anymore either. Instead, you’re in Barcelona sitting on a chair, watching the group stage draw, with your teammates, including your best friend, who was currently looking at you with both worry and shock.

“What’s wrong?” You glanced at the screen but it was already moving on to the next pot of clubs.

“Your ex plays for Arsenal?” Ingrid asked, but she already knew the answer as you glanced at the screen, spotting that Barcelona had been selected into group C, and two other clubs were selected already.  Hoffenheim, and… Arsenal.

A groan left your lips as you slid down the seat, covering your face with your hands.

“I’m going to get my ankles broken.”

“But she broke up with you?” Ingrid whispered, hurrying over to sit next to you instead of where she’d been sat before, everyone else paying more attention to the stream until the talking got louder.

“I don’t know what she told the team, so any one of them could break my ankles.” You replied, pulling your hands away from your face as Ingrid pulled you into a hug.

“I could break her ankles first? Wait… or we could ask Mapi to break her ankles?” Ingrid looked over at Mapi, who immediately looked over in confusion at you both.

“I’m not asking Mapi to break my ex’s ankles, it’s not worth the card.” You deadpanned, but Mapi was hurrying over, a few teammates complaining as she obscured the livestream on her way over.

“Whose ankles?” Mapi asked but you shook your head, even as Ingrid frowned.

“She broke your heart.”

“She broke your heart? I will break her ankles! Whose ankles am I breaking?” Mapi immediately grew more excited at the idea of revenge, looking between you and Ingrid, Ingrid looking at you as you rolled your eyes, shaking your head.

“It’s not worth getting carded breaking my ex’s ankles when we play Arsenal.” You replied, realising your mistake as Mapi scrambled to get up the Arsenal roster on her phone.

“It’s not worth it.” You whispered to Ingrid, but you knew she knew better. She was your best friend and had picked up the pieces of your heart that Jordan broke.

“Mapi, stop listing names, I’m not telling you. We didn’t even go public anyway… no you can’t just break all of the Arsenal squad’s ankles and hope you get my ex… even if she was the reason I left Arsenal. She confessed she was still in love with her ex, and they’re probably back together now. I don’t know, I blocked them both.” You explained, playing with your hands as Ingrid frowned, gently taking your hands in hers, Mapi was still on her phone but looking overwhelmed at the idea of taking out all of Arsenal by herself.

“Meli! Ven aquí!”

You let out a groan as Leila sat down with you three, looking confused until Mapi began to explain.

“You asked for a transfer?” Mapi asked, continuing her relay of what had happened.

“Well, first I cried, threw all of her stuff she’d left in a box to throw in the bin, deleted everything from my phone, called my agent asking for a transfer, booked a plane ticket to Germany, then cried some more.” You explained, listing off each thing you’d done after Jordan shut the door behind her.

“You threw away her stuff?” Ingrid frowned, looking confused as you frowned back, realising you’d left that out.

“Well, I wasn’t going to set it on fire… but she picked it up from the bin so, yeah. I needed to get out of London, and you were in Wolfsburg.” You explained, which explained to your Barcelona teammates why you had been photographed so much in Germany before your contract with Arsenal was revealed to the public as not being renewed. Your agent had spoken with Arsenal, and in the end, they let you leave, and you left the WSL too. The final result being you and Ingrid joining Barcelona after both receiving an offer from the club.

“Can we kill her?”

“We break her ankles-”

“No breaking my ex’s ankles, or her ex’s ankles, I see you considering it, Mapi!” You declared, interrupting Leila and Mapi’s scheming before a hand landed on your shoulder.

“I will score on them, for you.” Jenni declared, hugging you into her as you realised the rest of the team had been listening since the stream ended a while ago.

“Not worth the cards.” You warned Mapi and Leila, but your glare faded as you spotted the look on some of your team’s faces.

“Can you all focus on international duty and not my ex, please! We don’t even play Arsenal until next month!” You retorted, letting out a breath as Alexia nodded in agreement and began to speak, calming everyone down.

Leaning into Ingrid, your eyes lingered on another midfielder for a second, watching her facial expressions before you smiled to yourself then looked down at your hands shyly.

///

Every upcoming Barcelona game meant the Champions League group stages games were getting closer, and soon Arsenal would be making their way to the Estadi for the first leg.

It wasn’t unnoticed how your foot would bounce rhythmically against the floor, only stopping when you were on the pitch, getting an assist in for Lieke to score the eighth goal of the match against Villarreal. The game against Alavés four days later, you played with a strange aura or energy around you, an intensity that threw off the opposing team, as if you were playing your final game.

“We are not going to let them hurt you.”

“You played against McCabe before?” You asked but Ingrid rolled her eyes.

“You train against Mapi.” She deadpanned, pulling you into a hug in the middle of the locker room at half-time.

You and Ingrid ended up both being subbed off at the 46th minute for Patri and Alexia to come on, leaving you to try to calm your breathing on the bench.

“Next time I could be on the pitch for a match, it’s against Arsenal.” You realised, your hands shaking until you ended up sitting on them, Ingrid wrapping her arm around you to give you a side-hug on the bench.

“They will not hurt you. The team will not let them.” Ingrid whispered, holding you in her arms as you leaned into her, watching the game against Alavés carefully. You didn’t realise your foot was bouncing again until a hand gently rested on your knee, Irene meeting your eye for a moment before she continued to watch the game.

///

Two days after the match against Alavés, a day before Arsenal made their way to the Estadi to play Barcelona, you were curled up under a blanket, phone to the side of you as you’d given up trying to answer your texts. The words on the screen were unreadable, the screen itself was too bright and you were overwhelmed, hearing your heartbeat pound in your ears.

A knock at the door broke you from your thoughts as you got up, keeping your blanket around you as you made your way over to the door, glancing through the peephole to see who was there before opening it.

“Don’t you two have a date or something?” Your voice was croaky, but Ingrid shook her head, leading you back inside, asking Mapi to grab you a drink from the fridge as she brought you back to your couch.

“Checking in on you, before tomorrow.” Ingrid explained, chuckling as you kept the blanket around you like a cape. Mapi returned after a minute of trying to figure out your fridge, passing you the glass.

“Thanks… I think? What even is this?” you grimaced as you took a sip, confused about what Mapi had found in your fridge.

Another knock at the door had you passing the glass to Ingrid, who shared a similar grimace to you as she tried the drink, Mapi shrugging as she admitted she just grabbed the first thing she saw.

“Did you text the team my address?” You called into the living room, opening your front door to reveal Jenni, Alexia, Aitana and Laia.

“What is this? Squad meeting at my place?” You deadpanned, letting the four players inside. You were about to shut the door when you heard another knock, opening the door to find Patri and Clàudia had arrived too.

“Anyone else behind you?” You enquired, ushering in the two before you stuck your head out the door, spotting Leila making her way down the corridor.

“Ouahabi, vamos!” you called out, raising an eyebrow as Leila hurried down the corridor over to you.

“Anyone else?” you waited, but Leila shrugged, checking her phone.

“The others are parking.”

“Good luck to them… that car park is the worst, even when you live in the building.” You replied, closing the door as Leila headed to join the others in your living room.

“Wow, this looks like an intervention.” 

“You watch too much TV.” Ingrid chuckled, passing you the glass from before.

“Why are you giving me this? It’s- did someone drink some of it?” you glanced up from the glass to around the room, seeing no indication of who had tried to drink whatever Mapi had found in your fridge.

“Whatever… wait, Mapi- did you, did you pour a glass of pickle juice? Honestly if you wanted to poison me and get me out of tomorrow’s game you could have given me a heads up first… but I’m also glad you didn’t try making a drink out of my face masks…” you walked into your kitchen and back, holding up the bottle of pickle juice that had Mapi’s jaw dropping in panic.

“No, no!” Mapi began, standing up to argue but she was interrupted by a knock at the door, watching as you walked over to let in Caro, Torre, Irene and Frido.

“What did we miss?” Torre jokes, not expecting your answer as you glanced at your best friend’s girlfriend.

“León tried to poison me.” Hiding your smirk in your blanket cape as the newly arrived four turned to Mapi.

“Qué?”

“We agreed to cheer up, not poison!”

“Why do you even have pickle juice?”

“Martinis?” 

“Salads.” You deadpanned, rolling your eyes at your teammates as they started to argue amongst themselves about how they were here to cheer you up.

Your eyes lingered over the four midfielders in your living room (lingering on one specific one for a moment longer) a slight frown on your face as you ran over everything in your head that you had been thinking about earlier.

Jordan was a midfielder, so the defenders needed to handle her, whilst you and your fellow forwards would be put into the path of Arsenal’s defenders, including Leah.

“We know you are anxious about your ex-”

“It’s not that. She’s not going to hurt me, but her team could hurt one of you, and I don’t want to see that. I don’t care if my leg gets broken, I’m concussed or even worse, my ACL tears. Cards are going to fly tomorrow and I am terrified one of you is going to go off that field on a gurney. I got my heart broken in London, but it healed in Barcelona.” You played with your fingers, not daring to look up at anyone as you finally said what had been bugging you.

“Although the defence is going to be a nightmare since my ex’s ex, the ex that she dumped me for because she was still in love with her, is a defender… so yay!” you sarcastically clapped, glancing around for a place to sit but your teammates were even sitting on your coffee table at this point, so… you were stuck standing.

Your gaze was glued to the floor as you heard someone stand up, arms wrapping around you and your blanket cape as you hugged whoever it was back. Only when you noticed who was missing from the teammates on your couch did you see Ingrid smirking and wiggling her eyebrows not subtly. Your face burned as you realised it was a certain midfielder hugging you, burying it in her shoulder as more of your teammates stood up to hug you both.

///

The day arrived. The first leg Barcelona versus Arsenal in the group stages of the UWCL, at the Estadi Johan Cruyff.

You sat on the dressing room floor, holding your knees up to your chest as you waited for time to go by and the match to start. Ingrid reached over to pat your shoulder, followed by Mapi offering to break your ex’s ankles again, if you told her who your ex was. Shaking your head, you whispered the same thing you said during the group stage draw, “not worth the card,” glancing up to meet the soft smile of your crush, smiling back to her. 

Rolling back your shoulders, you straightened your spine as Alexia walked over and crouched down to meet your level, “Are you okay to play?” 

Your gaze drifted over Alexia’s shoulder for a moment as you debated her question, nodding to her but you only looked your captain in the eye when her hand gently rested on your knee.

“I’ll be okay.”

Alexia tutted slightly as she realised where you were looking at, or who.

“Your type is midfielders, eh?” Alexia whispered, smirking as your head snapped towards her, eyes widening in alarm.

“Stop staring at her.” Alexia warned you quietly, posture softening when you looked down at your boots, feeling your face burn.

“I’ll be okay,” your voice was quiet but Alexia could feel the fire in your tone, you were ready to fight for your teammates at Barcelona, because they were your family now.

///

Walking out onto the pitch, the Estadi was full of Barcelona and Arsenal fans, but you kept your gaze focussed, not letting it wander onto Jordan or Leah  at all. All the eyes on you blurred together as you blocked out any possible ex-teammates trying to meet your gaze, standing in line with your hands behind your back.

The match was a complete mess, more for Arsenal than Barcelona, but you knew from the first yellow card that this game was not going to end well. Mariona and Alexia both had a goal by the end of the first half, so Barcelona were leading 2-0, with McCabe getting the first card of the match for taking down Alexia.

Wiping your face with your jersey, you glanced up as Leila caught your arm, gesturing to the Arsenal squad on the field in wonder. Clearly she had been spying whilst sitting on the bench.

“¡No hay tobillos!”

Leila grimaced at your Spanish, plus what you had said in it, basically telling her ‘no ankles!’ instead of what you really meant, warning her to break none of the Arsenal players’ ankles.

“She’s not on the field anyway, just her ex…” you whispered hurriedly to Leila, who immediately ushered you towards the locker room, and Mapi.

The second half began and you had already warned your teammates to watch it, and not get on the wrong side of your ex’s ex, in Arsenal’s defensive line. One minute into the second half, Irene had a yellow card, but one minute later, Mariona was assisting Asisat with Barcelona’s third goal of the match.

Beth yeeting Mariona wasn’t something you thought you’d see in a match, but the yellow card she received for it was something you expected, before being substituted off for Tobin Heath, and Viv being substituted off for Caitlin, whilst Katie was substituted off for Nikita.

More substitutions occurred before Frida Maanum managed to break your team’s clean sheet, assisted by Tobin. One significant substitution left you stumbling slightly into the arms of one of your midfielders, who looked at you in confusion as you mumbled you were fine, but Jordan was now on the pitch. Foord’s yellow card was for taking Alexia down too, leaving you tapping your foot against the pitch nervously, watching carefully as Alexia got up.

Frido came on for Ana, Mana came on for Kim, four minutes later, Bruna came on for Mariona. Patri assisted Lieke in the fourth goal of the match for Barcelona at the 84th minute, whilst Arsenal’s new manager was also given a yellow card.

Alexia going down in the penalty box by means of Jordan’s mistimed tackle (although she may have not even touched her, you couldn’t see well), you ran your hands down your face, wondering how the hell Alexia was getting up every time, but another thing was on your mind, too bad Jordan was too close to you and overheard.

“What the fuck is this game?”

“You tell me!” Jordan grumbled back, not seeing the attention she had gathered as Mapi’s eyes widened, spotting the tension between you and Jordan, the tension increasing as Leah walked over. You ended up standing between Leah and Jordan as Alexia took the penalty, but Zinsberger stopped it.

“¿Qué?” you whispered, watching as Nikita ended up with a yellow card just before the game ended.

Barcelona had won 4-1, and Jordan and Leah both looked annoyed, but went around offering high-fives anyway.

You froze as Jordan met your eyes, heading towards you until arms flung themselves over your shoulders, legs wrapping around your waist as you caught whoever had just thrown herself on your back for a piggy-back. You knew her laugh anywhere, sending the butterflies in your stomach into a flurry of excitement, your crush unknowingly just saved you from having to talk to your ex after beating her and her team, your ex-team, in a Champion’s League group stage match.

“Good game, yes? Vamos!” Aitana grinned, gesturing for you to walk around as she stayed on your back, grinning as you headed towards Mapi and Ingrid.

Your best friend smiled broadly as she took in the flustered grin on your face as you carried Aitana on your back, the midfielder resting her head on yours as she conversed with Mapi, giving Ingrid time to wiggle her eyebrows again, teasing you gently as you met her gaze. Your eyes widened in alarm in case Mapi or Aitana noticed the action, but your crush on Aitana went hidden from everyone but Ingrid and Alexia, confirming what your captain had theorised before the match.

Your type really was midfielders.

[daily-ajax]

Ajax Vrouwen v AS Roma Women UEFA Women’s Champions League - Group C 30.01.2024 | Photos by Rico Brouwer/Getty Images

[alexbkrieger13]

it was true, interesting to see how much the teams earn from wins and stuff

English champions, Chelsea Women are set to earn the largest amount in prize money after emerging from the group stage of the UEFA Women's Champions League with the best record of any of the sixteen teams taking part.

After surprisingly being eliminated at this stage of the competition last year, the west London side topped a four-team group ahead of the previous season's semi-finalists, Paris Saint-Germain, and quarter-finalists, Real Madrid, with a record of five wins and a draw from their six games.

When the European governing body, UEFA, announced the introduction of a first-ever group stage in their showpiece women's club competition last year, they ensured each of the sixteen qualifying teams would earn a minimum of €400,000 ($424,700) prize money generated by a new centralized television deal with DAZN Group and a set of new sponsors specific to the competition.

Furthermore, the new deal awards prize money to each team based on results, Chelsea will eventually earn an additional €50,000 ($53,090) for each group-stage win and €17,000 ($18,049) for their draw in Madrid, amounting to an additional €270,000 ($286,658).

As one of the four group winners, Chelsea, along with Arsenal, Barcelona and Wolfsburg will be given a bonus payment of €20,000 ($21,235) and each team reaching the last eight are guaranteed to receive €160,000 ($169,884) even if they are eliminated at that stage in March. In total, Chelsea have so far earned €847,000, just under $900,000, in prize money so far.

Last season, Spanish champions Barcelona and French champions, Paris Saint-Germain earned the maximum amount of prize money available from the group phase of €880,000 ($934,295) by winning all of their six matches, something no team managed in this campaign. Barcelona and Bayern Munich qualified from the same group with five wins each, guaranteeing them prize money of €830,000 ($881,119) and €810,000 ($859,887) respectively.

The other Barclays Women's Super League side, Arsenal, also qualified for the quarter-finals as group winners with four wins, one draw and one inconsequential defeat, earning them €797,000 ($846,065).

Chelsea went into last night's match at home to Paris Saint-Germain having already secured their progress into the quarter-finals. Their 3-0 win earned them an additional €70,000 ($74,309) in prize money as group winners and, perhaps more importantly, ensured they will have home advantage for the decisive second leg of their quarter-final tie in March.

Chelsea moved last night's match to the club's main stadium of Stamford Bridge, attracting a crowd of 10,129, the second largest home attendance for an English club in the competition. Barcelona also played two of their matches at their Camp Nou stadium drawing the largest crowds of the group phase of 46,967 and 28,270 respectively. The additional gate receipts generated by both clubs are likely to push the team's earnings from this season's competition through the $1 million mark.

While the guaranteed revenue for women's team competing in the UEFA Women's Champions League is welcome in a competition where no prize money whatsoever was awarded to the first winners in 2002, there is a concern that wealth could increasingly be concentrated in certain nations. For the second season in succession, the eight quarter-finalsists will hail exclusively from the same five counties - England, France, Germany, Italy and Spain - a repetition unprecedented in the 21 previous years of the tournament.

While UEFA hopes to alleviate these discrepancies by holding back almost a quarter of the competition's revenue to award to top flight clubs not taking part, so-called 'solidarity payments', these amounts are also weighted towards the more successful leagues. The amount distributed to each national association is based on the performance of their clubs in the competition and must be shared equally among the clubs in their top domestic league not competing in the competition.

In the quarter-final draw on January 20, each of the four group winners, Arsenal, Barcelona, Chelsea and Wolfsburg will be paired with one of the group runners-up, Bayern Munich, Lyon, Paris Saint-Germain and Lyon, with the only stipulation being a club cannot be drawn against the team they already played in the group phase.

The winners of the competition could potentially earn prize money totalling €1.4 million ($1.486 million) from a prize pot of €24 million ($25.5 million).

[goalgalaxy]

Women's Football Quiz

Question 1:

Who is the current captain of the US Women's National Soccer Team?

a) Alex Morgan

b) Megan Rapinoe

c) Carli Lloyd

d) Julie Ertz

Question 2:

Which country has won the most FIFA Women's World Cup titles?

a) Germany

b) Brazil

c) United States

d) Norway

Question 3:

Who is the all-time leading goal scorer in FIFA Women's World Cup history?

a) Abby Wambach

b) Marta

c) Birgit Prinz

d) Mia Hamm

Question 4:

Which country hosted the first-ever FIFA Women's World Cup in 1991?

a) United States

b) Sweden

c) China

d) Norway

Question 5:

Which women's football club has won the most UEFA Women's Champions League titles?

a) Lyon

b) Wolfsburg

c) Frankfurt

d) Barcelona

Question 6:

Who is the first and only female winner of the Ballon d'Or award?

a) Marta

b) Ada Hegerberg

c) Megan Rapinoe

d) Carli Lloyd

Question 7:

Which player is known as "The Queen of Soccer" and has won the most FIFA Women's World Player of the Year awards?

a) Mia Hamm

b) Marta

c) Abby Wambach

d) Christine Sinclair

Question 8:

In which year did women's football make its debut at the Olympic Games?

a) 1996

b) 2000

c) 2004

d) 2008

[ffschweden]

Georgia Stanway kvitterade sent

Fram till den 88:e minuten var det Ajax Amsterdam och Bayern München som skulle gå vidare till kvartsfinalen i UEFA Women’s Champions League. Sedan forcerade gästerna PSG ännu en gång och Bayerns engelska stjärna Georgia Stanway tvingades till ett ödesdigert självmål som tog PSG vidare som vinnare i grupp C och kickade ut det tyska storlaget där förutom Stanway även Linda Sembrant, Magdalena…

[kyokuma]

2024-1-30 UEFA Women’s Champions League

vs Ajax

RomaはGroup C 4位。残念ながら、グループステージで敗退となりました。Bayern-PSGも同時にチラ見して、途中順位がころころ変わって、どのチームも結果次第で次へ進めたし敗退もあった。勝ち切るって難しい事と痛感した。

[ajaxvrouwen]

Ajax Vrouwen v Paris Saint-Germain Féminines UEFA Women’s Champions League - Group C 15.11.2023 | Photos by Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images

[goodgooner]

Match report: FC Zurich 1-9 Arsenal Women

Frida Maanum hits a hat-trick as we secure top spot in Group C of the UEFA Women’s Champions League

[that-soccer-guru]

Any prediction for tomorrow’s champions league final? And, what do you think of F. Kirby winning player of the year?

Okay I am hella late to this but I had my money on Barcelona, unfortunately. And they went out there and proved me right. Which like, good for them! But also they're gonna be unbearable during the season and I'm gonna need Atleti to step it the FUCK up bc we can't keep living under the Barcelona boot, ya feel me?

I don't much care for individual player awards bc they often end up going to popular players whose game doesn't always back up the honors they're getting. THAT BEING SAID Kirby came back from a serious heart condition and being sidelined for months. More importantly at nearly a goal a game, Kirby was on fire for a while there. It's a shame that Chelsea couldn't keep it together for her but I don't hate this pick this time.

[daily-ajax]

Ajax Vrouwen v AS Roma Women UEFA Women’s Champions League - Group C 30.01.2024 | Photos by Rico Brouwer/Getty Images

[leveloneandup]

Tobin Heath of Arsenal before the UEFA Women's Champions League group C match between Arsenal WFC and FC Barcelona at Emirates Stadium on December 09, 2021 in London, England. (Photo by David Price/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)

[caitlinclark]

Mariona Caldentey and Aitana Bonmati of FC Barcelona celebrate after scoring the opening goal during the UEFA Women’s Champions League group C match between FC Barcelona and Arsenal WFC at Estadi Johan Cruyff on October 05, 2021 in Barcelona, Spain. (Photo by Eric Alonso/Getty Images)

[magiccoverssport]

UEFA Euros 2022 Primer

Hooboy, the Women’s UEFA Euros are here and I am pumped to share my thoughts, feelings and observations on as much of it as I can consume, including writing up a preview for friends and fam who might want to follow along.

First warning: my perspective is from the bias of mostly following these professional leagues: WSL (England), UEFA Champions League (Europe) and NWSL (USA). That also means that the majority of my coverage/live-viewing recommendations will be USA/UK based, but I’ll try to include links to other general resources as much as possible. 

Second warning: I love this shit and I am mostly doing it for me. That is to say, it might not be the most user-friendly and I’ll maybe ‘go long’ on aspects that aren’t essential to actually watching football. I’ll try to organise things so you can get the basics with optional deep dives, but no promises.

Ok, let’s do this.

Where to Watch

UK: The Beebs

US: ESPN Networks

The WEUROs website also has a page with comprehensive information about coverage globally.

How the Tournament Works

The Euros will take place over the month of July 2022 in England, with the opening match occurring on 6th of July and the final taking place on the 31st of July (here's a link to a calendar share of all of the games if you want to save them). Sixteen teams qualified for the tournament and they’re allocated into four groups, where they will play every other team in their group to determine who moves to the quarterfinals. From that point, it’s a traditional tournament format, with single elimination games reducing team numbers from 8 to 4 (semi-final) to 2 (final). Look, UEFA made some nice graphics to explain. 

JK, it’s a bit of a mess (and also now out of date because Russia is no longer included and has been replaced by Portugal), but if you're not bothered by the England branding, here's a nice Euro 2022 wallchart produced by the Lionesses graphics team.

What To Expect

I'll do separate posts about each group, but here's a summary of thoughts on the whole thing, while attempting to avoid big predictions.

Anybody's Tournament

This really could be any team's to win (with the exception of a couple teams who would be incredibly fortunate to make it out of their groups, ahem, N. Ireland & Portugal, ahem). It's going to be competitive and some dominant teams on paper might not make it to the knock-out stages.

Final Four

Based on competitive games and expectations coming in, a semi-final group of England, Spain, Sweden and France would be a safe choice, and a delight to watch.

Based on vibes and potential alone, a final four of Norway, Denmark, Iceland and Italy would have great 'chaotic good energy'. This is also my line-up of dark horses to disrupt things this summer.

Who to Watch

Outside of team/group breakdowns, here are 5 players I'm excited to watch/hope have a great tournament, in no particular order:

Sveindís Jane Jónsdóttir (Iceland)

Pernille Harder (Denmark)

Marie-Antoinette Katoto (France)

Aitana Bonmatí (Spain)

Ella Toone (England)

Group Previews

Group A: The Home Draw

Group B: The Group of Death

Group C: The Holders et al.

Group D: The Disruptors

Round Check-Ins

Round 1.5 (Wednesday, 17th July)

Quarter Final Previews

QF1 (England v. Spain) & QF2 (Germany v. Austria)

QF3 (Sweden v. Belgium) & QF4 (France v. Netherlands)

[kyokuma]

UEFA Women’s Champions League

Group C はBayernとRomaの一騎打ちになるかと予想していたけど、折り返して、この2チームが 3，4位の位置。あと2試合。最後まで目が離せません😶

[ajaxvrouwen]

Ajax Vrouwen v Paris Saint-Germain Féminines UEFA Women’s Champions League - Group C 15.11.2023 | Photos by Dean Mouhtaropoulos - UEFA