Which Teams Aspire to Win the Women’s Champions League this Year?

The season in European football is slowly coming to an end, and this time both the men's and women's Champions League are in the decisive semi-final stages. Barcelona, Wolfsburg, Paris Saint Germain, and Olympique de Lyon promise to animate an exciting closing of the competition. They will try to stay, in Turin, with the maximum trophy at club level on May 22. The winning teams of both keys will face each other at the Juventus Stadium.

A total of 78 teams were the ones that began this path to the final in Turin, but only sixteen teams managed to participate in the final phase . After getting through the group stage and the quarterfinals, the teams mentioned above are the ones that will be defining their fate in the next few days, and a good part of the season, in these semifinals. Who will be able to confirm their presence in the grand finale?

Barcelona

Barcelona has become in recent years one of the examples to follow in the world of women's football. Important achievements stand out: having achieved their third consecutive league (seventh in history) in Spain; having many of the best soccer players in the world (Alexia Putellas, Sandra Paños, Lieke Martens, Jennifer Hermoso, etc), and having one of the best quarries. To this must be added winning the first Champions League in its history the previous season, where, as if that were not enough, it also won the Iberdrola League, after winning all 24 games in the competition. In addition, he won the Copa de la Reina (this season he also won the Iberdrola League and to date, he has won all his commitments).

For this edition, the team led by Jonathan Giráldez swept the UEFA group stage, after leading group C with a perfect score and with 24 goals in favor and just one against. Arsenal, Hoffenheim and the Danish painting Køge. Already in the quarterfinals and in the Spanish classic, the team imposed its entire hierarchy to overwhelm Real Madrid 8-3 on aggregate, with a memorable performance by Alexia Putellas. In the semifinals, they will seek to go for a new final when they face Wolfsburg.

Wolfsburg

The German team has two Champions League wins and three losses in the last 10 years, which reaffirms Wolfsburg's potential in this type of competition . In the last edition they were left out in the quarterfinals after losing to Chelsea (who would ultimately be a finalist) and they were also runners-up in the Bundesliga, after being two points behind Bayern Munich, which became the champion of the league.

With the talent of the Dutch Jill Roord, the Polish Ewa Pajor, and the experienced Sara Doorsoun, those directed by Tommy Stroot aspire to beat Barcelona in the semifinals to return after two years to the final of the Women's Champions League and show that the team continues to be at the highest level.

Read also: Angel City FC: Natalie Portman's big bet in women's football

Paris St Germain

The Parisians, like French football in general, have proven to position themselves in the world of women's football as one of the most competitive nations in recent years. In the case of PSG, between 2010 and 2016 they had already been runners-up in the league five times until in the 2020-2021 campaign they won their first league in history. In the Champions League, they hold two runner-up finishes and now they will try to reach a third final when they have to face their "black beast", Olympique de Lyon.

In France, they hope that Paris will be able to celebrate for the first time, thanks to international level soccer players such as the Canadian goalkeeper who won gold at the last Tokyo Olympics, Stephanie Labbé, her compatriot Jordyn Huitema, the Brazilian Luana and the French Grace Geyoro, Estelle Cascarino and young striker Marie-Antoinette Katoto,

Olympique Lyonnais

The hegemony of Olympique Lyonnais in France is tremendous, and the team led by Sonia Bompastor can boast of having seven Champions Leagues and 14 French leagues in their showcases , won consecutively (PSG broke this streak last season). In the 2019-2020 season they won their last Champions League and in the last edition they fell by the wayside after losing precisely the quarterfinals against Paris Saint Germain.

Now, once again, Olympique Lyonnais gets in the way of a squad that has in its ranks the best goalkeeper in the world, according to the latest FIFA awards, the Chilean Christiane Endler (despite the fact that she is currently injured). It also has the experienced Wendie Renard, Amandine Henry, Eugénie Le Sommer, the young Selma Bacha, Damaris Egurrola, Ellie Carpenter, and the Norwegian striker Ada Hegerberg, who in 2018 became the first woman to win the Ballon d'Or.

With these antecedents, the first leg semifinals that will be played on Friday, April 22 (Barcelona-Wolfsburg) and Saturday, April 23 (Olympique de Lyon-Paris Saint Germain), and the return keys that will both take place on April 30 April, promise to be extremely tight and with a reserved prognosis.