The third qualifying spherical of the UEFA Women’s Champions League will get underway on Thursday, as 18 groups battle it out for the ultimate 9 spots within the new-look league section.
So, what’s the new format? How does it differ from the boys’s competitors? And when is the draw for the league section?
Additionally, what’s this new competitors referred to as the UEFA Girls’s Europa Cup?
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What’s the new Girls’s Champions League format?
Let’s begin with the fundamentals. Below the previous format, 16 groups competed in 4 teams of 4 groups, with the highest two going via to the quarterfinals — after which onto the semifinals and the ultimate.
This season sees the Girls’s Champions League tackle an identical format to the revamped men’s competition (which has 36 groups) — with all 18 groups in a single huge league desk. Meaning two additional groups will likely be within the competitors correct.
9 groups certified mechanically from the highest seven nations:
Titleholders: Arsenal
France: OL Lyonnes, Paris Saint-Germain
Germany: Bayern Munich, VfL Wolfsburg
Spain: Barcelona
England: Chelsea
Portugal: Benfica
Italy: Juventus
The ultimate 9 locations are crammed via the qualifying rounds, with groups that lose dropping into the brand new UEFA Girls’s Europa Cup (extra on that later).
Closing qualifying spherical playoff ties:
Valerenga vs. Ferencvaros
Vorskla Poltava vs. OH Leuven
St. Pölten vs. Fortuna Hjørring
Katowice vs. Twente
BK Häcken vs. Atlético Madrid
Paris FC vs. Austria Vienna
Brann vs. Manchester United
Eintracht Frankfurt vs. Actual Madrid
AS Roma vs. Sporting CP
So, how does it work?
• Groups in positions 13 to 18 are eradicated on the finish of the league section in December.
• The eight groups in positions 5 via 12 play within the knockout section playoffs, in February, to earn a spot within the quarterfinals.
• The highest 4 go straight via to the quarterfinals, performed in March and April.
From the knockout section playoffs onward, the competitors has a two-legged format via to the semifinals, with a conventional one-legged ultimate, however with restricted attracts.
How does the league section feed into the knockout bracket?
The brand new format offers significance to league inserting with groups paired. The upper you end, the extra favorable your path, together with that leap direct to the quarterfinals for the highest 4.
For the ladies’s match, there’s only one draw, on Dec. 18, which units the total path of the bracket. There isn’t any nation safety, which means groups from the identical league can face one another all through the knockouts.
Here is the way it works.
For the knockout section playoffs, the draw will create 4 ties from:
11 or 12 vs. 5 or 6 (two ties)
9 or 10 vs. 7 or 8 (two ties)
The draw will place the 4 ties which have been created right into a place within the bracket, in both the silver or blue half.
Then the paired groups in positions 1 & 2, and three & 4, will likely be drawn into one among two potential positions, once more to create fixtures.
For the quarterfinals, the draw will likely be:
The winners of a tie involving 7, 8, 9 and 10 will play 1 or 2 (two ties)
The winners of a tie involving 5, 6, 11 and 12 will play 3 or 4 (two ties)
The entire bracket is now set.
The groups that end in positions 1-4 will likely be at house within the second leg of the quarterfinals.
The semifinal ties are already set by the bracket draw. In precept, the groups ranked 1 and a couple of will play the semifinal second leg at house. Nonetheless, if 1 and/or 2 are knocked out within the quarterfinals, the house proper will cross to the crew that has eradicated them. As an illustration, if Arsenal (first) are knocked out by Paris FC (ninth), it is Paris FC who can have house benefit within the ultimate 4.
So, it is not primarily based on league inserting — and meaning it is unattainable for the groups that end in third and fourth to get a house semifinal second leg, as they can not declare it off first or second.
OK, so how does the league section draw work?
The league section draw will happen on Sept. 19.
Relatively than inserting groups into teams, the draw now creates the fixtures. There will likely be three pots every containing six groups — ranked by UEFA membership coefficient. Every membership will play six video games, with two opponents drawn from every of the three pots. One match from every pot will likely be at house, and the opposite away.
That is 18 groups and 18 distinctive fixture lists to be drawn.
There are two foremost ideas within the league section:
• No membership can play one other crew from their very own league. (For instance, Arsenal can’t play Chelsea.)
• A membership can play not more than two groups from one nation. (If Arsenal draw Lyon and Paris Saint-Germain, they can not then play Paris FC.)
The draw ceremony will likely be noticeably totally different, too. In earlier seasons, the fates of all groups can be determined by a guide draw, with balls and pots for groups and teams, by a parade of former gamers. However the brand new format is so sophisticated that it will take too lengthy to finish in that method.
Here is the way it now works:
• A crew will likely be drawn on stage (beginning with Pot 1 and ending with Pot 3).
• A pc will randomly choose that membership’s six opponents (topic to the constraints of the draw) and decide which match is performed house or away.
Pot positions may not be so essential, however they nonetheless have relevance as every will include a variety of high quality. The distribution of house and away video games may even be necessary given the vary of potential opponents for every membership.
Whereas the draw creates the fixture checklist, the order by which video games are performed won’t be printed till later.
When will the video games be performed?
Third qualifying spherical
Leg 1: Sept. 11
Leg 2: Sept. 18
League Section
Matchday 1: Oct. 7-8
Matchday 2: Oct. 15-16
Matchday 3: Nov. 11-12
Matchday 4: Nov. 19-20
Matchday 5: Dec. 9-10
Matchday 6: Dec. 17
On Matchday 6, all 9 matches kick off on the identical time.
Quarterfinals
Leg 1: Feb. 11-12
Leg 2: Feb. 18-19
Semifinals
Leg 1: March 24-25
Leg 2: April 1-2
Closing
Might 22, 23 or 24 at Ullevaal Stadion in Oslo, Norway.
What’s the UEFA’s Girls’s Europa Cup?
It is a new second-tier European competitors however does not mechanically characteristic any groups from the highest seven nations: France, Germany, Spain, England, Portugal, Italy and Sweden.
A complete of 43 groups will compete, with runners-up and third-place groups from the nations ranked 8 to 24 incomes a spot by proper.
The allocation will likely be crammed by groups shedding within the qualifying rounds of the Girls’s Champions League. As an illustration, Inter Milan (Italy) are the one crew from a top-seven league who’ve already been eradicated and have dropped into the primary qualifying spherical of the Girls’s Europa Cup. Additional groups (at the very least two) from the highest seven nations will characteristic in the event that they lose within the ultimate qualifying spherical of the Champions League.
The entire competitors, together with the ultimate, is performed in a two-legged knockout format.
First qualifying spherical
Leg 1: Sept. 10-11
Leg 2: Sept. 17-18
Second qualifying spherical
Leg 1: Oct. 7-8
Leg 2: Oct.15-16
Spherical of 16
Leg 1: Nov. 11-12
Leg 2: Nov. 19-20
Quarterfinals
Leg 1: Feb. 11-12
Leg 2: Feb. 18-19
Semifinals
Leg 1: March 24-25
Leg 2: April 1-2
Closing
Leg 1: April 25 or 26
Leg 2: Might 2 or 3
