Matchday two of this season’s UEFA Women’s Champions League certainly delivered goals — 38 were scored across this week’s eight games.
On Wednesday, Bayern Munich maintained their 100% start to Group C with a 2-0 victory at Juventus, while Arsenal got back to winning ways following the exit of coach Jonas Eidevall by beating Vålerenga 4-1. In Group D, Barcelona bounced back after last week’s loss to Manchester City in a big way with a 9-0 win over Hammarby, but City remain top after they won 3-2 at St. Pölten.
The goals kept flowing on Thursday with Roma‘s 6-1 win at Galatasaray, and they are joint-top of Group A with Lyon after the eight-time champions won 2-0 at Wolfsburg. Chelsea remain leaders in Group B after they beat FC Twente 3-1, while Real Madrid got off the mark with a 4-0 win over Celtic.
We asked our writers Emily Keogh, Sophie Lawson and Sam Marsden to answer some of our burning questions.
What stood out for you on matchday two?
Lawson: Other than the raft of penalties (one in each of Thursday’s four games), there was a general rebalancing of the scales.
Barcelona emphatically got back to winning ways and left Hammarby humbled, after the Swedes had impressed last week by beating St. Pölten. Juventus put in a better performance than when they beat Vålerenga on matchday one but this time took nothing from their game against Bayern Munich. Twente, who had been so assured against Celtic, looked all at sea against Chelsea. Likewise St. Pölten, who had struggled so much at Hammarby, really gave the Manchester City side that beat Barcelona last week a run for their money.
There is a slice of unpredictability about the group stage, with teams already happily trading points.
Marsden: It was a good week for the Spanish sides after both suffered defeats in their opening games. The situation at Barcelona has been slightly curious in recent weeks. They have won league games 10-1, 8-1 and 7-1 but have been criticised for slow starts and going behind in games. The loss to Manchester City put new coach Pere Romeu firmly in the spotlight. Had Barça lost their hunger?
That debate has been parked for now after their best performance of the season, a resounding 9-0 win against Hammarby. It was a display, though, which also suggests Romeu has some work to do in terms of picking his best side. Is it time to finally give Clàudia Pina, who scored twice in the win, a more prominent role? Can Alexia Putellas re-capture her pre-injury form? Who, if anyone, drops out when Salma Paralluelo comes back from injury? These are all questions Romeu will have to figure out as the season progresses.
Meanwhile, Real Madrid are also off the mark in Europe, beating Celtic 4-0 after opening with a defeat at Chelsea. They have often flattered to deceive under coach Albert Toril, but they have quality players. Caroline Weir is back from injury and scoring regularly, while Linda Caicedo continues to develop. They could be a dark horse if things click.
Keogh: Chelsea didn’t look as comfortable against Twente as I thought they would. Fixtures that Chelsea would have breezed through previously seem to cause them issues under new coach Sonia Bompastor. St. Pölten’s handling of Manchester City was also impressive, given how Gareth Taylor’s side defeated Barcelona last week. Roma’s confidence and ability is also a standout this season. Having learned from their past two European campaigns, and following a pretty successful summer, the Italian side are proving impressive so far.
Biggest disappointment so far?
Lawson: It’s all about perception and where we set the bar for different teams: for Celtic and Galatasaray, it was hard to see anything but a procession of losses for the debutants.
While Hammarby, Vålerenga, Twente and St. Pölten have impressed in spells, again the bar was slung low, and you could argue similar for Real Madrid. So it comes to which of the so-called big teams have been left wanting.
It has to be Juventus and Arsenal. Both can be unpredictable. Yes the Gunners bounced back with their win over VIF, but they were far from exceptional and most of the goals in the game came from sloppy defending. Meanwhile, Juventus are hard to gauge: winning with a sub-par performance and taking nothing from a much more even one. But the Bianconere have been here before, drawn into a banana peel of a group, and they’ll know how easily they can be punished for not taking their chances.
Keogh: I was really optimistic about Juventus early on, given how well they played during qualifiers and how stacked their team has become following their impressive summer. But having struggling against Bayern and only picking up a 1-0 win over Vålerenga, I’m underwhelmed by the Italian side.
The disparity between the top sides in Europe and the far less experienced is vast. The debutants and those drawn from Pot 4 have little hope of picking up big results against former champions and teams who have far better resources and infrastructure. The new format for next season, which sees 18 clubs in one league table, could potentially make the competition a bit more even but it is really had to say the likes of Hammarby or Celtic were disappointing given how hard it is to face teams like Barcelona and Chelsea, who are miles ahead in their development.
Other than that, Wolfsburg’s lack of points and Real Madrid’s stagnated form is disappointing but with four games left, I wouldn’t be surprised if both teams rebound better for the latter part of the group stage.
Marsden: Everything appears to be going as you would expect in the four groups, in terms of the top two. Manchester City’s win over a below-par Barcelona was the biggest surprise, but given how the Catalan side responded this week, it’s Arsenal, Juventus and Wolfsburg who have disappointed most.
Like Barça, Arsenal responded well to their defeat to Bayern. It feels like Juve haven’t really got going and, while they have had two tricky games, zero points from two games is unacceptable for a team with Wolfsburg’s standing in the game.
