UEFA Women's Champions League Preview: Bayern travel to European powerhouse, Wolfsburg entertain PSG | OneFootball

Frauen-Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich and VfL Wolfsburg will start their European campaign with tricky fixtures in the new format of the Champions League. Following last season’s update to the previous group stage of the men’s competition, the League phase structure will now enter the scene in women’s football.

For the first time, there will be 18 participants with all of them ranked in a single table after six rounds of games. The clash of Juventus and Benfica will kickstart the new chapter before eight more matches this midweek. We’ll preview the fixtures of the two Frauen-Bundesliga representatives.

Barcelona Femení vs. FC Bayern Frauen

Estadi Johan Cruyff will be the venue for one of the standout fixtures of matchday 1. Bayern won the domestic double last season, and they started the new campaign with a similar wavelength. After the SuperCup triumph, Bayern kept a clean sheet in each of their first five league games.

The goalless draw at home with lowly Carl Zeiss Jena is the only fixture José Barcala didn’t win in his first seven outings. Meanwhile, despite their financial issues, Barcelona continued to dominate Liga F. They won each of their first six league encounters by scoring five goals per game on average.

Bayern Frauen enjoyed a memorable night when the two teams last met. They beat the European giants 3-1 in the group stage in front of the then-record crowd at Allianz Arena. However, Barcelona prevailed with a 2-0 aggregate score in their only knockout stage tie in the semi-final clash back in the 2018-19 season.

Team News

Lena Oberdorf, who will be back after missing the win over Bremen with a cold, is finally enjoying her football following a long-standing injury. Unfortunately, Sarah Zadrazil now faces a similar challenge of recovering from a cruciate ligament injury.

Goal-scoring center-back Vanessa Gilles and Jovana Damnjanović will also miss Tuesday’s game in Barcelona. Last season’s defeated finalists only used the captain Irene Paredes, midfield maestro Patricia Guijarro, and three-time Ballon d’Or winner Aitana Bonmatí off the bench in Saturday’s 4-0 win over Eibar.

Claudia Pina missed that game due to an injury, but she’s expected to, at least, make the squad in their first European game after the disappointment in Lisbon.

Predicted Lineups:Barcelona: Coll; Batlle, Paredes ©, Maria León, Paralluelo; Guijarro, Bonmatí, Putellas; Graham, Pajor, Pina

Bayern: Mahmutovic; Kett, Hansen, Eriksson, Simon; Oberdorf, Stanway; Harder, Tanikawa, Bühl; Schüller

Wolfsburg Frauen vs. PSG Féminines

Bayern’s next league game will be away at Volkswagen Arena against table-toppers VfL Wolfsburg. Stephan Lerch’s team climbed to the top on the virtue of the most goals scored after their 8-0 win in Essen. Wolfsburg also confirmed the women’s team will play at the Volkswagen Arena in the Champions League against Manchester United.

Before that, they will start their continental journey at AOK Stadion against PSG. The Première Ligue club brought competition to OL Lyonnes in recent seasons, but they lost to the French giants 6-1 at the end of September.

Wolfsburg knocked out PSG on their way to reaching the 2022-23 final when the last time the two clubs locked horns. After their underwhelming 10-2 aggregate defeat to Barcelona in last season’s quarter-final, the two-time champions will hope to do better this time around.

Predicted Lineups:

Wolfsburg: Johannes; Wedemeyer, Dijkstra, Küver, Levels; Peddemors, Minge; Huth, Popp ©, Zicai; Kielland

PSG: Earps; De Almeida, Mbock, Samoura; Diakité; Isabela, Carmona, Echegini, Karchaoui ©; Ajibade, Leuchter

Frauen-Bundesliga Review

Wolfsburg and Bayern are three points ahead of TSG Hoffenheim and SC Freiburg after five rounds. With her second brace of the season, Melissa Klara Kossler helped Hoffenheim to secure a comfortable 4-1 win away at HSV on Monday.

Freiburg also managed a similar margin victory against the other newly-promoted side, Union Berlin (3-0), after a heavy defeat to Bayern in the previous round. The derby between 1. FC Köln and Bayer Leverkusen was abandoned due to one of the floodlights going out ten minutes before the half-time break. The hosts were leading 1-0, thanks to a goal inside the first 30 seconds.

After a penalty shootout defeat to neighbours Ingolstadt, 1. FC Nürnberg became the only Bundesliga casualty in the first round of DFB-Pokal, but they fought back to earn a point against RB Leipzig on Sunday. In the opening fixture of matchday five, Eintracht Frankfurt returned to winning ways with a 3-1 success over Jena.

Niko Arnautis' team will face the Czechia side Slovácko on Wednesday in the first-leg of the second qualifying round for the inaugural UEFA Women's Europa Cup. Having won the first Champions League (UEFA Women’s Cup) in the 2001-02 season, Frankfurt could write another piece of history in the second-tier competition.