UWCL Briefing: Greenwood adds to Man City injury woes, Russo at double, Wolfsburg’s super sub

On the face of it, the final whistle of matchday five in the Women’s Champions League left little at stake in the last round of fixtures.

All eight quarter-finalists are known, with six of the eight having been decided before this batch of games kicked off. That is the lack of jeopardy that UEFA hopes will end with next year’s move to the league format used in the men’s competition — but results from this week have left three of the four groups with exciting final fixtures between first and second to decide the standings.

The one group where that will not be the case had been won by Lyon who have won five matches from five, as have Manchester City and Chelsea. Wolfsburg and Roma had their own head to head on Wednesday with both teams knowing that a win could guarantee their spot in the last eight. 

For Wolfsburg, as perhaps with Arsenal, this Champions League season has offered an opportunity for redemption after being eliminated in qualifying last season by Paris FC. Yet losses to Lyon and Roma in the group stage had left the two times winners at risk of group stage elimination.

There has been a question mark over the side’s ability to continue to hold their position in Germany. They are fourth in the Frauen-Bundesliga, albeit only one point behind the top three sides — Eintracht Frankfurt, Bayern Munich and Bayer Leverkusen — who are all level on points. The loss of a player like Lena Oberdorf to league rivals Bayern Munich as happened at the end of last season seemed to reflect the changing power dynamic of German women’s football. 

But when it mattered, Wolfsburg’s quality shone through — and in particular, that of super sub Sveindis Jane Jonsdottir. The Iceland forward, 23, is out of contract at the end of the season and with injuries has found herself in and out of the side. Wolfsburg were 2-1 up when Jonsdottir came on but the four goals she scored in 25 minutes, three after the 85th minute, ensured this was a humiliation for Roma. Given her previous season total with Wolfsburg was nine goals, it was certainly an out of character performance but one that will have piqued the interest of any suitors.

In the other group stage matches on Wednesday night, Chelsea and Real Madrid both won to ensure a showdown at the Stadio Alfredo di Stefano next week. Chelsea beat FC Twente 6-1 thanks to goals from six different scorers whilst Real Madrid won 3-0 against Celtic with goals from Signe Bruun and Alba Redondo. Real Madrid have never beaten Chelsea, despite having met them in the two previous group stages, and Sonia Bompastor’s unbeaten side this season would only need a draw to top the group. 

It is far more intriguing in Groups C and D where Arsenal and Bayern Munich, and Barcelona and Manchester City will meet to decide who finishes as group winners. 

Bayern Munich slipped up with a 1-1 against Valerenga in week four to make Arsenal’s task a little easier. They will need a win when the German side visit Meadow Park next week, but not by a specific margin, and Arsenal may feel secretly pleased that they will get to play the match at their smaller ground thanks to a fixture clash with the men’s team. The club have struggled to muster big crowds for midweek games at the Emirates and although some fans will miss out on tickets, the atmosphere will be far more intense. 

Interim manager Renee Slegers rotated the side in their 3-1 win over Valerenga in Norway as Mariona Caldentey continued in the midfield pivot with Kyra Cooney-Cross, as she did at the weekend against Aston Villa, while England forward Alessia Russo played off the left in attack. It was Russo’s two goals that cemented the victory, on her 50th appearance for the club, with Frida Maanum back in her home country adding the other. 

It was a professional and comfortable performance from Arsenal who appear to have moved past the stasis that set in under previous manager Jonas Eidevall. Bayern Munich will be a significant test of that, after Arsenal capitulated in the reverse fixture that began their Champions League campaign, collapsing from 2-2 to lose 5-2 in the space of 13 minutes.

Barcelona, meanwhile, will host Manchester City ready for revenge. The UWCL holders were comprehensively outplayed when they lost 2-0 in England in October but the City team who head to Spain will look very different to that one from October.

City manager Gareth Taylor confirmed after their 2-0 win over St Polten that striker Bunny Shaw, who has scored 14 goals in 14 games this season, will likely be out for the rest of the year, while captain Alex Greenwood was stretchered off during the match with what looked like a serious knee injury. Lily Murphy, 18, scored her first senior goal and Kerstin Casparij added the second.

With Lauren Hemp and Vivianne Miedema long-term absentees, City’s squad is stretched. It is unlikely that they will have the physical capability or technical quality to press Barcelona in the way they did so impressively in their first meeting. Barcelona’s job will be to try and overturn a two goal deficit in order to top the group.

The excitement for these fixtures depends on how important you think the seeding process for the quarter-finals will be. The opportunity to avoid Barcelona at that stage has normally been a strong enough incentive for teams to finish first, but there is a possibility that will not even happen. With so much unpredictability, it is hard to know exactly what virtue there is in finishing first or second. A team like Real Madrid would likely be an attractive quarter-final opponent for many, but there is no guarantee yet that they will even finish second. 

Instead this last set of games could represent an opportunity to see how prepared teams are to face high level opponents in meaningful matches. Large portions of this group stage have been yawningly predictable. The final set of games won’t be.

(Top photo: Russo scores her first in Norway. Alex Burstow/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)