Daryl’s Notebook: What I learned from the Women’s Champions League
It is hard to deny that women’s football has received a lot of attention over the past few years, and rightfully so, thanks to a number of changes and improvements made from grassroots level to the professional teams. Even though there are still disparities, it is still fair to say that this last few years have been a great period for women’s football.
As for me, I have very limited knowledge of women’s football. By limited, I mean knowing some of the best players and the best clubs. Getting introduced to the women’s game via the 2019 and 2023 editions of the Women’s World Cup was great for me because I was able to know more players and the teams that I should be paying more attention to. And to continue expanding my knowledge, the Women’s Champions League seems like a good next competition for me to follow. Let’s dive into matchweek 1, shall we?
Chelsea 3–2 Real Madrid
- Reason for choosing: In the past few years, Chelsea are definitely one of the more dominant teams in the world of women’s football. While they have not enjoyed a successful time in the Champions League, their strength in the Women Super League have been well-documented. With the appointment of a Champions League winning manager like Sonia Bompastor, the London-based side clearly show their ambition to be the first English team to win the competition since 2006. On the other hand, I do not know much about Real Madrid and their history in the Liga F, but considering they had to qualify through the qualifiers and Barcelona have not been dethroned yet, I think maybe Real might not be as strong on the women side as their men’s team.
- Quick thoughts:
- Chelsea looked good early on in the first half, which was expected coming from a team that were managed by a veteran of the competition like Sonia Bompastor. It was interesting to see that, since Real Madrid opted not to press high up early on, the host looked quite comfortable playing out from the back. They were so comfortable that their midfield triangle did not drop too deep while the centre-back pairing of Millie Bright and Natalie Björn stayed so far apart from each other to allow keeper Zećira Mušović to move in between and create a temporary back three.
- Chelsea also showed their preference to attack down the wings, mainly on the right due to the presence of Lucy Bronze, Lauren James, and Johanna Rytting Kaneryd and the use of short combinations between them. Right winger Kaneryd and left-back Sandy Baltimore regularly found themselves bombing down the flank and ending up on the byline to send low crosses into the box. On a few occasions, they were lucky that the ball found the attackers to make a shot, but on the rest that did not, Chelsea were also quick to capitalise on the second balls that came out from the challenges to recycle possession and continue the attack.
- The first half saw total dominance from the host as they pushed Real Madrid back into their own defensive third on multiple occasions. That…also hurt them a bit because it allowed the Spanish side to overload the penalty box and cleared any crosses that come from Chelsea’s wings. However, except for the scramble that led to Alba Redondo’s goal, most of Real’s attacks have not been too dangerous, which eased the job a bit for Chelsea’s defence.
- Into the second half and Chelsea still looked quite dominant, but a few changes were made by Bompastor to how they played out and attack. The host still relied on wing attacks and focus was still placed on the right-hand side. But since Bronze now stayed deep to form the back three with the centre-backs, spaces on that side were vacated by Kaneryd and James, with James sending in crosses from out wide and led to Mayra Ramírez’s goal. The midfielders were also not responsible for switching the play anymore, which Bright was now tasked with making long passes to either flank. Instead, the midfield triangle looked to make short passes in between the lines to create chances through the middle.
- Overall: It was the sort of match where Chelsea did not look like they would lose. They looked dominant throughout the match and created more chances than Real Madrid, but they did not look too good when it came to finding the final ball and the touch to score a goal. So, still rooms to improve for Bompastor after this match. Real Madrid, in contrast, were always the second-best team in the tie as they were left chasing the ball for the majority of the match. I feel like they will have the quality to make it out of the group stage, but as far as if they can make it out comfortably, that might be a question left unanswered for now.
Bayern München 5–2 Arsenal
- Reason for choosing: While still being one of the stronger clubs in Germany, Bayern München’s women’s team do not enjoy total dominance in the domestic game like the men’s team do. This is also reflected through Bayern’s history in the Champions League, with Wolfsburg advancing deeper into the competitions on more occasions. A similar thing can also be said for Arsenal in the Women Super League, but considering the strength of both teams, this clash was still one of the matches to pay attention to for me.
- Quick thoughts:
- As per usual, Arsenal used a 3–2–5 shape to play out from the back, with left-back Katie McCabe stayed deeper while right-back Emily Fox pushed further forward and allowed right winger Mariona Caldentey to tuck inside. And also similar to Chelsea, there was the use of keeper Manuela Zinberger in build-up. At this point, I…shouldn’t be surprised when I see a team using that build-up shape anymore.
- Meanwhile, nothing too special from Bayern as they used their original 4–4–2 shape to build up. The only noticeable thing that I can pick out from Bayern’s build up in the first 15 minutes was the use of overloads and short combinations when the ball was moved out wide. And to be fair to them, they executed the short combos well to progress the ball, then looked to switch the play or play a long ball to the strikers. They also started slightly more passive than Arsenal, might be because they wanted to react to the game a bit later on while letting Arsenal did their own things.
- The thing that Bayern did well, though, was defending against Arsenal’s attacks. Also using a traditional 4–4–2 mid-to-low block, they managed to force Arsenal’s attacks to both flanks and used numerical advantages to overload the space while also managed to clear crosses that come in from out wide. This limited the ability to create chances for the away side and they found themselves a bit frustrated not to have more shots taken halfway through the first half. But…just one cross was needed for Arsenal to find the breakthrough and the opening goal.
- Seems like Bayern had found something entering the second half. With almost every attacking moves early in the half, the host looked to progress down the right-hand side and then sent crosses to the far post with the aim of challenging Emily Fox and Leah Williamson. This was what they did to find that equalising goal, the only difference was instead of Viggósdóttir being at the end of those crosses, these crosses were aimed towards Pernille Harder.
- Forgot to mention this earlier, but one of the successes that Bayern’s defence enjoyed in the first half and 15 minutes into the second half was isolating Stina Blackstenius from the rest of Arsenal’s squad. The Swedish striker just could not connect with any of the midfielders and were also not found from most of the crosses that came into the penalty box. This was one of the main reasons why Arsenal looked a bit frustrated with their attacks since they could not get the ball into the box for Blackstenius.
- Even with the introduction of Alessia Russo and Beth Mead, Arsenal still strugged to break down a solid and discipline Bayern’s defence to create goal-scoring chances. Russo was managed to get involve a bit more, but that was mainly because the English striker preferred to move in between the lines to receive the ball, which offered something slightly different to Blackstenius. The fact that they had to rely on another corner to find the equalising goal…then immediately conceded two goals from two corners not long after, that tells you something about Arsenal’s performance in this match.
- Credits to Harder because the Danish striker looked like a different player coming out of the half. Even though Harder enjoyed a quiet first half, the former Chelsea player grew into the second half, and once Harder scored the goal to hand Bayern the lead, there was no looking back. Harder’s movements to score all three goals were great, especially the goal that came from a corner, where Kim Little got left behind while Harder turned the corner and headed the ball into the goal.
- Had to dedicate a whole bullet point for Harder’s third goal. Being able to sense the space that was opened up by Leah Williamson and Laia Codina and moved into such space was already great, yet Harder also got to the end of Giulia Gwinn’s low cross to score. I would assume the finish was made a lot easier because of Harder’s movement and positioning to receive the cross.
- Overall: In contrast to their London rival, Arsenal had a tougher day in Germany because it seemed as if Eidevall’s plans were completely undone by the brilliance of Pernille Harder and Bayern’s discipline defence. The away side just could not create any significant chances from open play and had to rely on two corners to find the two goals. But once Bayern grew into the match in the second half, there was not much that Arsenal and Eidevall could do to avoid a defeat.
Man City 2–0 Barcelona
- Reason for choosing: There is no doubt that Barcelona is the club who are at the forefront of this women’s football movement. With two of the best players in the world playing for them while winning two of the latest Champions League titles and breaking records after records, this Barcelona Femení team are going from strength to strength. Meanwhile, Man City are doing…Man City things, which is throwing a lot of money at the wall to find success as quick as possible. They have recruited good players from the Women Super League and are building a good team though, so the question now is, can the women’s team challenge for the Champions League like the men’s team did in 2023?
- Quick thoughts:
- It is interesting to see that City were willing to press very high even though they knew that Barcelona had the quality to play through the press. On occasions, that had proven to work for the host as they forced Barcelona players to make mistakes straight inside of their defensive third or to clear the ball long. But on others, the slight hesitancy in the press hurt City as it allowed Barcelona to play through the press and put pressure on City’s defensive line.
- Meanwhile, on the opposite side, City was able to use Barcelona’s high defensive line to send Bunny Shaw through on goal. Those couple of occasions that took place in the first 15 minutes actually resulted in two dangerous chances. But…the way that City attackers dealt with it was not too good and they wasted two good opportunities to take an early lead.
- I have been impressed by Shaw so far after 30 minutes of the first half. Shaw looked like a complete forward who can protect the ball and hold off challenges from Barcelona’s defenders. Then, quick on and off the ball to make runs in behind the defensive line, creating chances for teammates, and that was only from the first 30 minutes. With the kind of talent and ability around Shaw, you could only imagine how many goals Shaw would score for City.
- With the number of chances that City had been creating, it was just a matter of time until they scored, which they eventually did from Naomi Layzell. I was just a bit surprised that the goal came from a corner and, more or less, a scramble situation. But hey, a goal is a goal!
- Both City and Barcelona just did not seem like they were slowing down heading into the second half. The host continued to sustain the high press and forcing Barcelona to clear the ball more often, though they did start to drop back a bit and allow the away side to have more of the ball inside their own defensive third. Meanwhile, Barcelona looked for more attacks down the wings and they too also looked to counter press with the hope of regaining the ball high up the pitch. So far, however, City’s defence continued to hold strong while their defenders also made key blocks and interceptions to maintain the clean sheet.
- I want to give credits to City’s keeper Ayaka Yamashita too. While I knew of Yamashita’s quality through extensively watching and analysing Japan’s performance at the 2023 Women’s World Cup, she looked very solid in goal for the host throughout the match. While there were a couple of build-up moments where Yamashita looked a bit shaky under Barcelona’s press, the Japanese keeper dealt with long shots very well and managed to hold the ball tight to prevent any rebounds. Yamashita also controlled the box well to claim crosses or even cleared the ball when the team were under pressure. Overall, a solid performance by the Japanese keeper in goal.
- City also had good wide players in right-back Naomi Layzell and the winger duo of Mary Fowler and Lauren Hemp to cause havoc down both flanks. While Hemp and Fowler looked energetic whenever the ball was played to them as their dribbles created a fair bit of troubles for Barcelona, Layzell’s defensive work was solid and the English full-back also managed to play a ball over the top to assist Shaw’s goal.
- Overall: The match definitely lived up to the expectation as both teams gave their best to a sold-out set of fans. It was also interesting from the tactical point of view when Gareth Taylor and Man City entered this match with a clear plan of pressing Barcelona high up the pitch and attempted to force errors from the opposition’s players. It was a risky plan, but it paid off because it allowed City to control the first half and get the lead. Combine with solid defending and a bit of attacking quality, the host came away with all three points while also introducing a plan for other teams to potentially beat a very strong Barcelona side in the near future.
Originally published at https://talkingtactics.substack.com.
