A positive start for Sonia Bompastor’s Chelsea but a nightmare outcome for Arsenal: Winners and losers from the 2024-25 Women’s Champions League group stage draw

This year will be the Women’s Champions League’s final season in the group stage format and Friday’s draw certainly threw up some tantalising fixtures for its final hurrah as it prepares to follow the men’s competition into a league structure. Amid doubts over the appeal and entertainment that the new format provides, fans will be certain to savour this year’s UWCL action – and there is even more reason to after how it has been set-up.

Giants like Barcelona, Chelsea, Lyon, Bayern Munich, Manchester City, Real Madrid, Juventus, Arsenal and Roma were all involved in Friday’s draw, while historic names such as Celtic and Galatasaray will also make their group stage debuts this year, after coming through qualifying. Some groups look unlikely to spring surprises. Others look like minefields.

So, as Barca set out to retain their European crown, record-winners Lyon look to take the trophy back from them and Chelsea pursue a first ever UWCL title, who can be happy with this year’s draw? And who might be less pleased? GOAL breaks down the winners & losers…

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  LOSER: Arsenal

  It wasn’t easy for Arsenal to get to the group stages, needing to overcome a first leg deficit in the second round of qualifying to beat Hacken, and it is not going to be easy for them to get out either, as the Gunners have been put in what is arguably the toughest group of the four. Jonas Eidevall’s side will take on German champions Bayern Munich, Italian giants Juventus and Valerenga, Norway’s representative, for a place in the last 16.

  Arsenal will certainly believe in their own capabilities and back themselves to come through, and they can take heart in the fact that Bayern crashed out at this stage last year while Juve didn’t even get this far, so they have previously been suspect to some underperformance. However, the same applies to Arsenal themselves, who lost in the first round of qualifying last year.

  This time around, Bayern look much sharper, Juventus just knocked out Paris Saint-Germain in qualifying and Valerenga have won all of their last 16 competitive fixtures. It’s not going to be easy for the Gunners at all, so they will need to be on top form for each and every fixture.

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    WINNER: Sonia Bompastor

    Meanwhile, Arsenal’s London rivals Chelsea came out of this draw with a much better outlook, as they continue to chase a first Women’s Champions League title. It’s the Blues’ big ambition to be crowned champions of Europe and it has factored into some of the decisions they made this summer, bringing in Sonia Bompastor as Emma Hayes’ replacement and adding Lucy Bronze, a five-time Champions League winner, to the squad.

    As Bompastor looks to translate her experience of winning this trophy as a coach and a player with Lyon to a new environment, she and her team have been granted a group stage draw they should ease through. Avoiding two-time champion Wolfsburg, Chelsea are instead pooled with Real Madrid from Pot 2, which is the better outcome given the Spanish side are yet to really trouble Europe’s elite. Twente and Celtic make up the rest of Group B, two sides with quality but lacking experience of this level.

    As Bompastor settles into life in England, avoiding a particularly demanding European schedule to balance alongside a league she is still fully getting to grips with, in the Women’s Super League, is a positive result.

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      LOSER: Roma

      After enjoying a breakthrough European campaign in 2022-23, reaching the quarter-finals and restricting Barcelona to a narrow 1-0 win in Italy, Roma were dealt a cruel hand last year when they landed in the ‘group of death’ with PSG, Bayern Munich and Ajax. Despite being huge underdogs, it was actually the latter, in their first group stage appearance, who qualified with PSG, leaving Bayern and Roma to assess and dissect the disappointment of their premature exits.

      This time around, Roma knew it was going to be tough again, as they were in Pot 3 once more and therefore bound to get at least one elite opponent in their group, if not two. Sadly for them, the outcome was indeed the latter, as they will have to battle eight-time champions Lyon and two-time champions Wolfsburg for a spot in the last 16, as well as newcomers Galatasaray.

      As back-to-back Serie A title winners, Roma are a fantastic team, well-coached and with a squad that is constructed brilliantly by the staff at the club. However, they are going to be up against it again when it comes to showing that on the European stage. The silver lining is that they were in this situation just 12 months ago and should hopefully have learned some lessons on how to deal with the challenge.

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      WINNER: Manchester City

      When Manchester City’s draw started with them being placed in the same group as reigning European champions Barcelona, you could forgive fans for fearing the worst. To be pooled with the Catalans is tough enough but if they were to be joined in Group D by one of the trickier Pot 3 teams as well, it could create a difficult challenge in reaching the round of 16.

      Fortunately, things eased up for the Cityzens when it was St. Polten – rather than Roma, Juventus or Twente – that were revealed as their next opponent, with Hammarby later joining the party.

      The Swedish champions will be a tough opponent. They defeated last year’s quarter-finalists Benfica in qualifying and look set to secure a European spot for next season as well, as they sit third in the Damallsvenskan, the Swedish top-flight, at the moment.

      However, it certainly feels like Man City will be heavily favoured to get to the round of 16, even if they’ve never tasted the group stage format and are pooled with Barcelona. As they get back to grips with European football, this is a relatively decent draw.

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        LOSER: Sweden

        As things stand in UEFA women’s association coefficient rankings, Sweden, previously a real heavyweight in the women’s club game, is clinging onto the seventh and final place that will return three Champions League spots moving forwards. This week has been a tough one when it comes to them keeping hold of that.

        First, Hacken were heavily defeated by Arsenal in the second leg of their second round qualifier, despite going into the game with a 1-0 lead from an impressive victory in their home leg. After Linkoping lost in extra time to Sparta Prague in the first round, it meant only one of Sweden’s three representatives would make the group stage. Then, Hammarby, that lone representative, were placed in an extremely tricky group with Barcelona and Man City. It puts particular pressure on the Swedish champions to win both games against St. Polten, while tasking them with the challenge of getting something from those other four fixtures.

        The good news is that Norway, which has Valerenga in the ‘group of death’, and Austria, which St. Polten is representing, are the two nations breathing down their necks in the coefficient rankings, looking to upgrade their two UWCL spots to three. Still, it’s going to be a tough ask for Sweden to really strengthen their position this season as a nation that once had so much success in European women’s football continues to fight against the odds.