#uwcl 21/22 group stage

[redwineconversation]

Juventus - Lyon Match Day 2 Postgame Thoughts

I struggle to see how Bompastor keeps her job past January; Malard makes me think homicidal thoughts; whomever cursed Lyon was incredibly efficient.

If Lyon is a serious club with serious ambition, and if this team does not make it out of the group stages, then Sonia Bompastor cannot be head coach on January 1. Her youth experiment has gone on for long enough and all we have learnt so far is that it needs to be reserved for the youth academy itself. Academy players have no place in the pro team.

Prior to this season, one of Lyon's strengths was simply that they had seen it all before. It was hard to fluster them simply because they had already experienced it, so they knew how to handle whatever it was. The advantage of this team was that it was really hard to rattle them because whatever you were doing to them wasn't the first time they had experienced it. Someone mentioned once that Lyon handles big games so well because it's a form of muscle memory for them.

Well, it was, because it's certainly not the case right now, and that's because of the inexperience of the players. Now I know it's a catch-22: in order to get that experience, you have to actually experience it. You don't know how you will handle something until you have actually lived through it. I get that argument and I am sympathetic to it.

But Olympique Lyonnais Féminin is not a fucking experiment. The UWCL has become more competitive, especially with the group phase, and to act like "academy players deserve a chance" in a competition where every point counts is to deliberate shoot yourself in the foot.

Giving academy players a chance will not win you the Champions League. It will not win you the Champions League this season and it will not win you the Champions League next season and it probably won't win you the Champions League the season after that.

That is not how competitive clubs work. Either Lyon is a competitive club or it is an academy feeder club but it cannot be both.

I said it before, and it is worth repeating again, it is unacceptable that a team of Lyon's calibre recruited Jaurena as RB to make up for Carpenter's absence. We knew on May 21, 2022 that Carpenter would be out for a minimum amount of six months, and for some reason decided that the best solution was Jaurena? Now I know Lyon decided to prioritize Carpenter's development and didn't want to do anything which could potentially jeopardize that - which explains why they weren't as aggressive in their pursuit of Lucy Bronze as Barcelona was - but Lyon's favorite title could potentially evaporate because Lyon half-assed a vital part of recruitment this summer.

We knew since December 2019 (!!!!!) that Lyon suffers in the attack when Hegerberg is out. Now, it's fair to argue that players like Hegerberg, they don't come along every day. Lyon got lucky with Hegerberg. You don't always get a second shot at the right person walking into your life at the right time, and again, I'm sympathetic to that argument. I know Lyon had to problem solve.

But we should have solved that problem in January 2020. You know what we have learnt since then?

That Malard is not Hegerberg, that Malard will never be Hegerberg, and that she does not have the level to be a top player. It remains bewildering to me that that player is still on Lyon's payroll. Before I turned the option off I had a hysterical anon saying I was being too harsh on Malard but you know what? I stand by what I said then and I stand by it now. Malard does not have the level to be a top player and sure as hell does not have the level to play at Lyon, much less start there.

Any other coach, who is not blinded by their fucking youth academy development, would have understood that Malard is a liability more than an asset and that player would be a part of our collective bad dreams by this point. Instead, I am looking forward to regretting more of my life choices and seeing her in the starting lineup when my alarm goes off at 4.45am on Sunday morning.

It is unacceptable that a player who has cost us TWO own goals in THREE games is still in the starting lineup, much less on the team sheet. By keeping her in the lineup and on the field for 90 minutes (????) all Bompastor is doing is rewarding mind-blowingly bad performances.

Both Bompastor and Malard need to fuck off elsewhere where they can be mediocre at best without burning an ambitious club to the ground.

I joked about it, but also am somewhat serious: is Lyon even going to have 11 healthy players on January 1, 2023? A team already crippled by injuries, it now looks like we are losing Damaris to a timeframe similar to that of Griedge M'Bock's, and Bacha for several weeks as well. Welcome to the Hunger Games, Lyon edition. May the odds be ever in your favor.

Let's recap the important players Lyon is now without: Ada Hegerberg; Catarina Macario; Amel Majri; Damaris; Sara Dabritz; Griedge M'Bock; Ellie Carpenter; Selma Bacha; Dzenifer Marozsan. Now some of those players are more of difference makers than others, but it cannot be emphasized how crippling to Lyon these injuries are. I admit it is hard for Lyon to switch into God Mode when they are so dead.

But Jesus Christ we shouldn't have be contemplating resurrections in the first place. As I said before, we knew for ages that these injuries would affect our style of play. We knew in January 2022 that Lyon's defense suffers without Carpenter. We knew in January 2020 Lyon's offense was stagnant without Hegerberg. We knew that if you kneecap Lyon's midfield they lose their ability to press.

We’ve known all this for months, even years.

But Lyon's Board still insisted on giving Bompastor's youth academy experiment a chance, and that experiment is going to cost us the Champions League this year, and possibly for years to come.

[magdasabs]

Got me thinking of the uwcl 21/22 training kit that didn’t survive the group stage 😢🥺

sexy training kit 😍 what a beauty it was, gone too soon

[theroleofimagination]

UWCL 2021/22 Group Stage Matchday 1

📺 All games on DAZN UWCL YouTube

Tuesday 5 October

12:45ET/17:45BST/18:45CET

TSG 1899 Hoffenheim vs HB Køge (Group C) 📺 YouTube

BK Häcken vs Olympique Lyon (Group D) 📺 YouTube

15:00ET/20:00BST/21:00CET

Barcelona vs Arsenal (Group C) 📺 YouTube

Benfica vs Bayern München (Group D) 📺 YouTube

Wednesday 6 October

12:45ET/17:45BST/18:45CET

Servette FC vs Juventus (Group A) 📺 YouTube

WFC Kharkiv vs Real Madrid (Group B) 📺 YouTube

15:00/20:00BST/21:00CET

Chelsea vs VfL Wolfsburg (Group A) 📺 YouTube

Breidablik UBK vs Paris Saint-Germain (Group B) 📺 YouTube

[the-necessary-unnecessary]

Spain have overtaken England in the Women Champions League Association ranking. It is now ranked France, Germany, Spain and England. It means in theory the WSL Champions will not enter the UWCL at Group stage in 2021/22, but earlier in Round 2 unless they win this year's 2020/21 tournament. Since there will be 3 teams in 2021 the other 2 WSL teams will be in the earlier qualifying rounds.

I’ve been thinking about this a bit, how arguably the wsl is one of the most competitive leagues but at the end of the day none of of them have excelled amongst the best in europe in recent years.

But yeah that’ll be interesting an interesting one to manage...

[theroleofimagination]

The ball. The touch. The finish.

Steph Catley with the assist for Vivianne Miedema's fantastic goal against HB Køge

[theroleofimagination]

Two club legends 👏

[theroleofimagination]

UWCL 2021/22 Group Stage Fixtures

🕖All kick-off times CET

📺 All games on DAZN UWCL YouTube

Matchday 1

Tuesday 5 October

Group C: Hoffenheim vs HB Køge (18:45), Barcelona vs Arsenal (21:00)

Group D: Häcken vs Lyon (18:45), Benfica vs Bayern München (21:00)

Wednesday 6 October

Group A: Servette vs Juventus (18:45), Chelsea vs Wolfsburg (21:00)

Group B: WFC Kharkiv vs Real Madrid (18:45), Breidablik vs Paris Saint-Germain (21:00)

Matchday 2

Wednesday 13 October

Group A: Wolfsburg vs Servette (18:45), Juventus vs Chelsea (21:00)

Group B: Paris Saint-Germain vs WFC Kharkiv (18:45), Real Madrid vs Breidablik (21:00)

Thursday 14 October

Group C: HB Køge vs Barcelona (18:45), Arsenal vs Hoffenheim (21:00)

Group D: Bayern München vs Häcken (18:45), Lyon vs Benfica (21:00)

Matchday 3

Tuesday 9 November

Group A: Servette vs Chelsea (18:45), Juventus vs Wolfsburg (21:00)

Group B: WFC Kharkiv vs Breidablik (18:45), Paris Saint-Germain vs Real Madrid (21:00)

Wednesday 10 November

Group C: Barcelona vs Hoffenheim (18:45), HB Køge vs Arsenal (18:45)

Group D: Benfica vs Häcken (21:00), Lyon vs Bayern München (21:00)

Matchday 4

Wednesday 17 November

Group C: Hoffenheim vs Barcelona (18:45), Arsenal vs HB Køge (21:00)

Group D: Häcken vs Benfica (18:45), Bayern München vs Lyon (21:00)

Thursday 18 November

Group A: Wolfsburg vs Juventus (18:45), Chelsea vs Servette (21:00)

Group B: Breidablik vs WFC Kharkiv (18:45), Real Madrid vs Paris Saint-Germain (21:00)

Matchday 5

Wednesday 8 December

Group A: Servette vs Wolfsburg (18:45), Chelsea vs Juventus (21:00)

Group B: WFC Kharkiv vs Paris Saint-Germain (18:45), Breidablik vs Real Madrid (21:00)

Thursday 9 December

Group C: Arsenal vs Barcelona (21:00), HB Køge vs Hoffenheim (21:00)

Group D: Benfica vs Lyon (18:45), Häcken vs Bayern München (18:45)

Matchday 6

Wednesday 15 December

Group C: Barcelona vs HB Køge (21:00), Hoffenheim vs Arsenal (21:00)

Group D: Bayern München vs Benfica (18:45), Lyon vs Häcken (18:45)

Thursday 16 December

Group A: Juventus vs Servette (21:00), Wolfsburg vs Chelsea (21:00)

Group B: Real Madrid vs WFC Kharkiv (18:45), Paris Saint-Germain vs Breidablik (18:45)

[theroleofimagination]

WePlayStrong Vlog: Back at the UWCL with Arsenal & Bayern | Vivianne Miedema + Sarah Zadrazil

[theroleofimagination]

UWCL 2021/22 Group Stage Matchday 3

📺 All games on DAZN UWCL YouTube

Tuesday 9 November

12:45ET/17:45BST/18:45CET

Servette vs Chelsea (Group A) 📺 ENG / FRA

WFC Kharkiv vs Breidablik UBK (Group B) 📺 ENG / UKR / ISL

15:00ET/20:00BST/21:00CET

Juventus vs VfL Wolfsburg (Group A) 📺 ENG / ITA / GER

Paris Saint Germain vs Real Madrid (Group B) 📺 ENG / FRA / ESP

Wednesday 10 November

12:45ET/17:45BST/18:45CET

Barcelona vs TSG 1899 Hoffenheim (Group C) 📺 ENG / ESP / GER

Arsenal vs HB Køge (Group C) 📺 ENG / DAN

15:00ET/20:00BST/21:00CET

Benfica vs BK Häcken (Group D) 📺 ENG / POR / SWE

Olympique Lyon vs Bayern München (Group D) 📺 ENG / FRA / GER

[theroleofimagination]

WePlayStrong UWCL Vlog: Wins for Arsenal & Bayern Munich! 🎉

[theroleofimagination]

UWCL 2021/22 Group Stage Matchday 2

📺 All games on DAZN UWCL YouTube

Wednesday 13 October

12:45ET/17:45BST/18:45CET

Vfl Wolfsburg vs Servette (Group A) 📺 ENG / GER

Paris Saint-Germain vs WFC Kharkiv (Group B) 📺 ENG / FRA / UKR

15:00ET/20:00BST/21:00CET

Juventus vs Chelsea (Group A) 📺 ENG / ITA

Real Madrid vs Breidablik UBK (Group B) 📺 ENG / ESP/ ISL

Thursday 14 October

12:45ET/17:45BST/18:45CET

HB Køge vs Barcelona (Group C) 📺 ENG / DAN / ESP

Bayern München vs BK Häcken (Group D) 📺 ENG / GER / SWE

15:00ET/20:00BST/21:00CET

Arsenal vs TSG 1899 Hoffenheim (Group C) 📺 ENG / GER

Olympique Lyon vs Benfica (Group D) 📺 ENG / FRA / POR

[theroleofimagination]

Tonight's attendance - not bad for a rainy Thursday night in December.

Really pleased that the crowd kept singing and chanting throughout, even with that scoreline!

[theroleofimagination]

Meh.

Well we're through but we're not gonna last long in the quarters if we play anything like that.

Good on Hoffenheim - they played for their lives and we were shit.

Yes we're knackered and depleted etc but we need to be better than this, simple as that.

Just want to get through Sunday's game with a win and no injuries, and for them to have Christmas break and come back in January refreshed and hopefully better than this because it's just rather disappointing.

[theroleofimagination]

Well, we lost - as we thought we would, but still a very enjoyable night.

Arsenal showed so much more passion and fight than on Sunday - still don't understand what happened to them in that Cup Final. Some silly mistakes and annoying errors (that first goal 🤦‍♀️) but Barcelona are truly a step above and obviously deserved to win.

Bit disappointed we didn't score but glad we at least had some chances and played some good football.

Thought Keets, Beth, Cait and Jord were absolute terriers pressing and some excellent tracking back and defending too - especially Keets and Beth, they really worked hard all night long. Some very important defensive work from Jen and Steph - just a shame about a couple of miscues/mistakes really being taken advantage of by Barca. Lesser teams may not have always been able to turn those into goals but no doubt about it with Barca. Another excellent performance by Manu, keeping the goal-line vaguely respectable! She got lots of applause from the crowd at the end and seemed to really appreciate it - even did a wiggly little dance 😂

The crowd was great - brilliant atmosphere and we cheered them til the end. There didn't seem to be an announcement about the attendance (anyone know what it was?) but for a cold and rainy week night in December it seemed like a pretty good turnout, and it was certainly an engaged crowd throughout.

We may have lost (and resoundedly so) but I'm proud of our girls anyway and I'm not even particularly disappointed. It's weird, it's a very different feeling to Sunday - probably a big part of it is the difference in expectation going in and the performance of the players as well. We know we're not at Barca's level yet but at least the team played like they wanted to win and weren't afraid of them. Plus, unless we cock it up against Hoffenheim (still a possibility tbh) we should get through to the quarters anyway so there wasn't as much to lose.

All credit to Barca, fantastic team and a pleasure to watch, although more so when they're not playing us! Does anyone else get a bit of tunnel vision when they watch their team though? I don't really see/appreciate the other team in the same way I would if I was watching a game as a neutral. Even so, still absolutely appreciated them and Frido's goal was the pick of the bunch 👏

A few random things:

A man on the train on my way saw my scarf and said "You going to the Champions League game? Hope it's a good one!" Things we very much like to see - he knew immediately and didn't for a minute assume it was for the men, visibility is so important!

Frida was obviously looking for someone in the crowd at the end and then there were Maren, Guro, Fran and Erin waving at her! The Chelsea crew there to support their friends on both teams - wonder if they had any flashbacks to last year?!

Wish I'd got a pic a minute before when they were waving at Frida but I was too busy realising who it was!

Nice as well to see Yanks on Sky Sport on the way out - again, love to see these things!

All in all a fun night, and definitely a lot more fun than Sunday - but hopefully they'll get their groove (and goals!) back for these last three games before Christmas and then have a well deserved rest!

[theroleofimagination]

STEPHHHHHH!!!

What a free kick - right in the top corner!

Her first goal for Arsenal! 🥳

[theroleofimagination]

🔴🏳️‍🌈➡️🏟️