Arsenal and Man Utd aim to book Champions League quarter-final spot | OneFootball

The UEFA Women's Champions League returns this week with Arsenal and Manchester United among the eight clubs competing in the two-legged play-offs.

The clubs that finished in the top four of the league phase – Barcelona Bayern Munich, Chelsea, and OL Lyonnes – will await their opponents which could see an all-WSL clash in the quarter-final phase.

Wolfsburg will take on Juventus while Paris FC face off against Real Madrid which leaves the games involving the two English clubs...

OH Leuven vs. Arsenal

The current holders Arsenal finished one point off a direct place in the quarter-finals to set up their play-off game against OH Leuven with the first leg being played in Belgium on Wednesday.

The Gunners will be strong favourites to go through not only as last year's winners but having also handily defeated Leuven in December.

Olivia Smith – who scored in the big win over league leaders Manchester City on Sunday – opened the scoring for Arsenal that night before Beth Mead made it 2-0 shortly afterwards. The game eventually finished 3-0 after a Saar Janssen own goal.

Should Arsenal progress as expected then they'll face a familiar foe in the quarter-final with Chelsea awaiting the winner.

Atlético de Madrid vs. Manchester United

Another rematch from the league phase sees Man United look to progress even further in their first Champions League campaign.

Madrid hosted the first leg which was also the venue for the last meeting between the two teams. Fridolina Rolfö scored the only goal of the game that night. United had to hang on after Dominique Janssen was given a straight red card although Alexia Fernández received a second yellow later on to even up the numbers.

That win will give Marc Skinner's side confidence of progression particularly with the new January arrivals. Meanwhile, Elisabeth Terland not only scored against Leicester City at the weekend, she has also been in superb form in Europe scoring seven goals in eight Champions League games (including qualifiers).

Should United manage to best Atlético de Madrid once again then there'll be an even more difficult test in the next round: German champions Bayern who are undefeated domestically so far this season.