Last month, quarterfinalists for UEFA Women’s Championship League for the current season were decided after 16 teams played their second-leg matches on different venues across Europe. The result showed huge aggregate wins for several teams. French football Club Lyon topped among all others by blasting FC Zurich Frauen by 8-0 in the first leg and 9-0 in the second to register an aggregate score of 17-0. Others, who entered the quarterfinals with big aggregate scores were Bayern Munich, 8-0 against Russia’s FC Rossiyanka; Wolfsburg 8-1 against Sweden’s Eskilstuna United; Paris Saint-Germain 7-1 against Kazakhstan’s Bilk-Kazygurt; Swedish Club FC Rosengard 6-1 against Slavia Praha and FC Barcelona 5-0 against Netherlands’ FC Twente 65. The other two teams sailing into the quarterfinals on aggregates were; Manchester City with a 2-1 victory over Denmark’s Brondby IF and Danish Club Fortuna Hjorring with 4-1 win over Italian Club Brescia Femminile.
The 2016–17 football competition is the 16th edition of European women clubs, which got rechristened as UEFA Women’s Champions League 8 years ago. The current season featured a record number of 59 teams, of which the lowest-ranked 36 teams got engaged in qualifying matches during August 2016. The remaining 23 teams entered the round-of-32 without having to play qualifying rounds based on various criteria. As per the rules of the tournament, qualifying rounds were played as mini-tournaments with four teams in each of the 9 groups. After home-and-away matches, 9 Group Winners made it to the knock-out phase in the round-of-32. These 9 teams joined the 23 direct qualifiers, which consisted of title holders, champions of top 12 European associations and the runner-up teams of highest-ranked associations. The qualifying rounds were completed on August 28, 2016 and 9 teams, which entered the round-of-32 were; Apollon Limassol(Cyprus), FC Minsk(Belarus), Breidablik(Iceland), KKPK Medyk Konin(Poland), FC Zurich(Switzerland), WFC SFK 2000 Sarajevo(Bosnia Herzegovina), BIIK Kazygurt(Kazakhstan), Avaldsnes IL(Norway) and FC Twente(Netherlands).
This season’s round-of-32 matches consisted of Teams 1 and 2 and matches were played on home-and-away basis in October 2016. The first leg games concluded during October 5-6 while the second during October 12-13, 2016. The 16 winners were once again divided into two Teams 1&2; and played first and second leg matches during November 9-17. Now the UEFA women’s championship has reached the quarterfinal stage.
After the quarterfinal and semifinal draws on November 25, the first and second leg QF schedules have drawn up. The quarterfinal games will be played during March 22-30, 2017. As per the draw, Fortuna Hjorring play against Manchester City; Rosengard take on FC Barcelona; two-time champions Wolfsburg play against thrice champions Lyon and Paris Saint-Germain lock horns with Bayern Munich. In the semifinals thereafter, the winner in the match between Rosengard and FC Barcelona play against the winner of the match between Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain while the second semifinal will be feature winner between Manchester City and Fortuna Hjorring and the winner of Wolfsburg and Lyon. These two-legged semifinals will be played during April 22-30, 2017. The two finalists will then proceed to Cardiff City for the Grand Finale on June 01, 2017.
The last eight teams also have three-time winners Lyon and double champions Wolfsburg. These two have performed creditably in the current season but since they meet in the quarterfinals, only one of them will remain in competition this year. 2015 runners-up Paris also have a tough QF draw as they play Bayern Munich. Going by the QF and SF draw, there is a strong possibility of an all-German or all-French final. This season’s top-scorer is Wolfsburg’s Zsanett Jakabfi, who already has 8 goals against her name. Bayern’s Vivianne Miedema comes next with 7 goals while Lyon’s Eugenie Le Sommer has scored 5 goals so far. With 4 goals each, Camille Abily of Lyon, Ada Hegerberg also of Lyon and Jenni Hermoso of FC Barcelona are the other notable scorers this season.
