English clubs face tough challenges in Women’s Champions League draw
Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City all landed glamour – and unforgiving – assignments as the Women’s Champions League league-phase draw paired England’s contenders with the giants of Europe.
In Nyon, the holders Barcelona, record eight-time winners Lyon and last season’s semi-finalists Bayern Munich all loomed large. None of the English trio escaped them.
Arsenal walk into a European cauldron
Arsenal’s path reads like a greatest hits of the modern women’s game.
They will host Lyon, Benfica and HB Koge at Meadow Park, a familiar foe among them. The Gunners dismantled the Danish side home and away in the 2021-22 campaign; those nights should bring confidence, but there will be no room for complacency in a compressed league phase where every point matters.
The real heat lies on the road. Arsenal must travel to Barcelona, Paris FC and Inter Milan, a sequence that will test their depth, nerve and ambition. Barcelona, reigning champions and the benchmark in Europe, offer the sternest examination. Paris FC, hardened by recent European runs, and Inter, eager to make a statement, ensure there are no soft landings.
Arsenal were drawn from pot one, but their schedule carries the feel of a knockout run stitched into the autumn.
Chelsea’s Lyon reunion and a demanding European tour
For Chelsea, the draw brought a compelling narrative twist.
Sonia Bompastor, who lifted this trophy as coach of Lyon, will now lead Chelsea back to her former club in one of the standout ties of the league phase. The trip to France is the centrepiece of a demanding away programme that also includes Swedish side Hacken and Belgian champions OH Leuven.
At home, Chelsea – beaten finalists in 2020-21 – will welcome Paris St‑Germain, Roma and Austria Wien to London. PSG remain perennial contenders, Roma are steadily growing into European competition, and Austria Wien arrive as league-phase debutants with nothing to lose.
Bompastor’s intimate knowledge of Lyon adds intrigue, but the margins will be thin. Chelsea’s pot-one status has not spared them a physically and tactically varied set of opponents, and their ambitions of finally going one step further will be tested from the opening whistle.
Manchester City return with a point to prove
Manchester City are back in Europe after a season on the outside looking in. They were dropped into pot three, a reminder of that absence, yet escaped the worst of the possible permutations.
“Avoided the toughest draw” does not mean easy. Far from it.
At home, Andrée Jeglertz’s side will face PSG, Real Madrid and Austria Wien. Those nights in Manchester carry a clear opportunity: turn home advantage into a platform for qualification. PSG bring power and pedigree, Real Madrid bring technical quality and a growing European identity, while Austria Wien will be treated as underdogs only at City’s peril.
Away, the challenge spikes sharply. Trips to Bayern Munich, Hacken and Inter Milan await. Bayern, semi-finalists last season, know exactly what it takes to navigate this competition’s sharp end. Hacken have built a reputation as awkward, organised and relentless on their own turf. Inter, in Milan, add another demanding away day to a congested schedule.
For City, who missed out entirely last year, these fixtures are both a test and a chance to reassert themselves among the elite.
European heavyweights collide again
The draw also ensured some heavyweight rematches beyond the English interest. Barcelona and Bayern Munich will reprise their 2025-26 semi-final in Munich, a tie that still lingers in the memory for its intensity and quality. Bayern will also travel to face PSG, another clash loaded with tactical nuance and individual star power.
All 18 clubs were seeded into three pots of six, each team drawn against two opponents – one home, one away – from every pot. Arsenal and Chelsea sat in pot one, City in pot three, but the names that emerged ensured no one could talk of an easy ride.
The road to Warsaw
Uefa will confirm the exact match schedules on Saturday, 5 September, but the framework is set.
The league phase will open on 22 and 23 September, with matchday two on 30 September and 1 October. Matchday three arrives on 28 and 29 October, followed by matchday four on 10 and 11 November, and matchday five on 18 and 19 November. The sixth and final round of league fixtures will be played on 16 December.
From there, the competition tightens. Knockout phase play-offs are pencilled in for February 2027, the quarter-finals in March, and the semi-finals in early May. Warsaw will stage the final in the last week of May, the city waiting to crown a new – or perhaps familiar – European champion.
By then, we will know whether Arsenal’s daunting away days, Chelsea’s reunion with Lyon and City’s return to the continental stage have forged contenders or exposed fault lines.
