The Assist: Get ready for the Women's Champions League

The Assist is back to preview the start of the Champions League group stage, including a look at Man United’s first foray into Europe. And point you in the direction of the best Women’s football to follow on FotMob during the month of October, including massive games in Liga F, the Frauen Bundesliga, and the UEFA Nations League semifinals.

After a few seasons of relative stability, this season’s Champions League has been rejigged in similar fashion to the men’s game. Out goes the Group Stage and in comes a new, expanded, 18-team League Phase where each club plays six rounds of games. The top four then automatically qualify for the knockout stage, with the sides finishing fifth to 12th entering a play-off to determine the four remaining spots in the quarterfinals.

The usual suspects are all included and most are involved in some high level match ups as the first round of games get played across tonight, and tomorrow evening.

Defending champions Arsenal start with a home tie against OL Lyonnes, the recently rebranded record winners, in a repeat of last season’s semifinal. And Barcelona, last year’s runners-up, host Bayern Munich. Then, on Wednesday, Chelsea visit Dutch side FC Twente, Wolfsburg play PSG, and after beating one Norwegian side in the qualifiers, Manchester United face Vålerenga, another side from the Toppserien, in what will be their first ever appearance in the competition proper.

“I don’t want us to go and just experience the Champions League,” coach Marc Skinner had said, speaking in the build up to Manchester United’s debut in the competition.

The Champions League is the standard bearer and yardstick like no other.

For Skinner and United, getting to that promised land has been the goal all along, finally achieved after navigating two qualifying rounds and successfully seeing off PSV Eindhoven, Hammarby and Brann across four games by an overall cumulative 8-1 scoreline. 

It hasn’t been the smoothest of rides, agonisingly missing out two years ago in a third qualifying round defeat to two-time finalists Paris Saint-Germain, after which came the club’s worst WSL finish (fifth in 2023/24) just 12 months on from their best (second in 2022/23). High profile and senior players have left at various junctures, but United rebuilt, in many ways going back to basics by focusing on defensive structure, and came storming back into the WSL’s top three. This past summer was about adding polished quality to that newly solid foundation – Fridolina Rolfo, Julia Zigiotti Olme, Jess Park.

All three have played in the Champions League before, with Rolfo in particular a veteran of the competition with each of her last four clubs, a five-time finalist and two-time winner. The Swede brings a certain class to the left-hand side of the pitch, with Zigiotti a tenacious force in the centre of midfield – arguably a previous weak point, and Park capable of breaking defensive lines at will.

Qualifying for the Champions League may have always been the target, but it was never the end game. Hosting PSG (again), this time at Old Trafford, and eight-time winners OL Lyonnes in the weeks to come is not viewed as a prize for what has been achieved so far, but another – still early – step in a much longer journey that is far from over.

“Don’t go in eyes wide open,” Skinner urged. “Focused” and “mature” is the instruction.

Manchester United should start Champions League week in confident mood after they became the first side this season to take points off Chelsea back in the WSL. Friday’s 1-1 draw means that United and the six-time defending champions remain the only unbeaten teams in the division, but wins for Manchester City (against Arsenal no less), and Spurs, mean that United slip to fourth in the fledgling table.

Even if you don’t pay much attention to domestic football in Spain you may not be surprised to hear that currently Barcelona sit top of the table, with six wins from six games played, 31 goals scored, and just one conceded.

Interestingly, Atlético Madrid also remain unbeaten after six rounds, with a similarly tight defence and free-scoring attitude as the league’s dominant force. The two face off at Atlético next weekend.

Atlético haven’t beaten Barca since 2021, and they haven’t scored so much as a goal against them in their last six meetings, but there’s always a chance that things may be different this time around.

The big two also clash in Germany this weekend, with Wolfsburg hosting Bayern Munich, in a game being played on Saturday afternoon.

Both sides have an identical played six, won five, drawn one, record to start the campaign, but Wolfsburg lead the table by virtue of their superior goal difference.

Bayern, however, can boast a significantly better defensive record, having yet to concede a goal this season. Wolfsburg have outgunned them - scoring 20 goals to Bayern’s 13 so far - but the She Wolves have also shipped in seven.

Kansas City Current have the Shield all sown up in the NWSL, the trophy given out for the regular season table toppers. But with three rounds left to play, the post-season picture is no where near settled.

Of the other 13 sides in the division, only Washington Spirit are assured of their place in the play-offs, and at the other end, only Bay FC and Chicago Stars have been eliminated mathematically.

The remaining 10 are left fighting over the remaining six play-off places, with just seven points separating Gotham in third down to North Carolina, who sit just outside the all-important top eight.

To get the best from your FotMob app, we highly recommend tailoring your personalised match feed to get the leagues and cup competitions that you care about showing at the top, each and every time you open the app.

This can all be done via the Edit and Follow functions found in the Leagues tab.

But to save confusion, we’ve written this handy step-by-step guide - here.

Looking further ahead this month, we thought we’d highlight a few key games in the upcoming international break:

23 Oct: USWNT vs. Portugal (friendly)

24 Oct: UEFA Nations League Semifinals (Germany vs. France, Spain vs. Sweden)

26 Oct: USWNT vs. Portugal (another friendly!)

28 Oct: UEFA Nations League Semifinals, second legs (France vs. Germany, Sweden vs. Spain)

28 Oct: USWNT vs. New Zealand (friendly)

Bonus Tip: Click on any of the match dates above, then tap the star in the top right of the match page to automatically add them to the top of your main match feed in the app.