The conclusion of the UEFA Women’s Champions League play-offs, much like the group stage, offered a compelling and highly entertaining — in some matches — case for the new format. As it turns out, mashing together some of the grittiest clubs on the continent with a ticket to face the big dogs raises the bar for quality competition in ways that have appeared to benefit all sides.
The next phase begins March 24 with the following quarter-final fixtures: Wolfsburg and OL Lyonnes, Manchester United and Bayern Munich, Real Madrid and Barcelona, and Arsenal and Chelsea in the first leg. The second leg kicks off on April 1.
Let’s start with the least interesting fixture from a competitive standpoint …
Striker Alessia Russo led the way as Arsenal cruised to a 3-1 win over OH Leuven (Glyn Kirk / Getty Images)
Arsenal smoothly sail into tough test
Arsenal have booked a quarter-final spot against Women’s Super League foe, Chelsea — but they need the big-game version of the team to show up if they are to have a real chance at defending their European title.
A 3-1 victory (7-1 aggregate) over Oud-Heverlee Leuven at Meadow Park ensured Arsenal’s progress, but like multiple matches in their league phase campaign, this was not a massively convincing performance. Energised after equalising on the night through Sara Pusztai, Leuven unsettled Arsenal in their press and the holders were sloppy at the back — not helped by driving wind and rain. Though the aggregate result was never really in doubt after Arsenal’s 4-0 victory in the first leg, Leuven spurned promising chances given up by the home team’s mistakes and could have come away with more goals.
For other sides, producing a stilted performance against a team making their European debut this season would not bode well for an encounter with their biggest domestic rivals in the next round. But Arsenal seem to transform into a much more cohesive team in the biggest games. That showed in their progress past Real Madrid and OL Lyonnes in the knockouts last season, and their recent league victories over Manchester City and Chelsea. Consistency has hampered their ability to challenge for domestic titles, but they have played some of their best football in blockbuster fixtures. It is not the most sustainable mindset, but if it sees them knock Chelsea out of the Champions League, they will not care.
Cerys Jones
Real Madrid’s win sets up El Clasico meeting
Moving on to the second fixture on Wednesday, Real Madrid versus Paris FC saw the Spanish side advance 5-2 on aggregate (3-2 and 2-0 in the first and second legs, respectively). Paris FC did well to hold a tight scoreline in their first game, but a early red card in the fifth minute of the second leg did them no favors against a Madrid side hungry for more goals.
Real Madrid didn’t let up their hunt for goal in the second leg against Paris FC. (Guillaume Baptiste / Getty Images)
For their efforts, Real Madrid will also face a deeply familiar quarter-final opponent in FC Barcelona for a Champions League edition of El Clásico. Based on recent meetings, Real Madrid’s chances against their domestic rivals are slim; they’ve won one game in their last five against Barcelona (a 3-1 league victory), which will have been a year ago by the time they meet in the quarter-finals on March 24.
There haven’t been enough significant changes to either side to offer much new by way of prediction. Barring anything unforeseen, Linda Caicedo, Carolina Weir, and Athenea Del Castillo will worry Barcelona’s, at times questionable, defense, but it’s unlikely that the worry will give way to a greater concession of goals than Barcelona is likely to score. They are expected to control the midfield, even without Aitana Bonmati, for whom Vicky Lopez and Kika Nazareth have been excellent replacements.
Tamerra Griffin
Wolfsburg’s triumphant comeback rewarded with challenging quarter-final
Until the 82nd minute of their first match against Italian champions Juventus on Feb. 12, Wolfsburg were two goals down. A converted penalty, followed by a last-minute goal in the fifth minute of stoppage time, set the stage for the most entertaining playoff match of the bunch. Wolfsburg won their second leg 2-0, bookending the match with spectacular goals in the 18th and 96th minutes. The latter goal came from impressive combined play between forward substitutes Kessya Bussy to Cora Zicai, the latest demonstration of the German side’s extraordinary discipline across their roster, not only among their starting XI.
They needed that discipline in spades against determined Juventus, who had stretches of doing everything right except finding the back of the net in the second half, forcing Wolfsburg goalkeeper Stina Johannes to make nine saves.
Wolfsburg will face eight-time champions OL Lyonnes next in the quarterfinals. The French titans are among the toughest tests and have long been expected to reach the finals. They got the better of Wolfsburg in their last meeting on Nov. 11, beating them 3-1. But Wolfsburg should enter these fixtures at their most confident following this pair of resilient playoff performances.
Griffin
Jess Park’s strike helped send Manchester United to the quarter-finals with an exclamation point. (Darren Staples / Getty Images)
Manchester United make noise and claim a quarter-final spot
Manchester United are also through to the quarter-finals, a statement that few at the campaign’s start might have said with gusto, but one that now feels silly in its apparentness. What else was apparent was just how simple this felt for United. Not only because of their 3-0 first-leg advantage or because Atletico Madrid — quick on the counter but toothless, sloppy and eventually down to 10 players after Xenia Perez’s sending off in the 86th minute — made it so. But because United have simply made the step up.
Nothing embodied that ease as much as Jess Park’s goal, United’s second of the night following Julia Zigiotti Olme’s low-driven opener. Four minutes from half-time, the 24-year-old stepped into space on the edge of the box and knocked one into the top corner, leaving Atleti keeper Lola Gallardo rooted to her spot. And there’s a metaphor there for United: something about stepping into space and making it so unapologetically your own.
United handled any potential banana skin this tie might have thrown up well, particularly given the depleted ranks. United’s bench boasted just four outfield players (all four of whom were used) and two keepers thanks to absences of Anna Sandberg, Jayde Riviere, Elisabeth Terland, Ella Toone, Leah Galton and Fridolina Rolfo.
Even so, United comfortably dominated and that the tie ended just 5-0 on aggregate was in some way flattering to Atletico, given the missed chances from Lea Schuller, Melvine Malard and substitutes Ellen Wangerheim and Jessica Anderson (on for her club debut).
Bayern Munich await, a true litmus test of United’s credentials. They will need to be more clinical and sharper defensively. They will likely need to find a way of replacing midfielder Hinata Miyazawa (who supplied Park’s goal) if Japan make it to the final of the 2026 Asian Cup (the first-leg of United’s quarter-final is three days after the final). United will also probably need more than four players on their bench, something that should not be ignored by United’s director of football Jason Wilcox, chief operating officer Collette Roche, chief executive officer Omar Berrada and business operations director Ameesh Manek who all attended the match at Leigh Sport Village.
But these are claims we have made all season for United on this stage. For now, they are busy making their own noise.
Megan Feringa