The first match day of the UEFA Women’s Champions League 2022-23 group stage last week was earmarked as a rough and ready litmus test for the Women’s Super League’s chances of producing another winner as the two English teams still standing were drawn against the top two from Division 1 Féminine (D1F). Two wins in 24 hours would suggest the WSL has surpassed D1F, but is that really the case and if it is, what does that actually mean for foot féminin?
Ahead of this week’s games, let’s break it down.
The pacesetters
Olympique Lyonnais‘ eight Champions League titles didn’t come overnight and nor were they a product of good fortune, but rather the fruits of the investment from OL president, Jean-Michel Aulas. First Lyon conquered France, working their way to the top of the Division 1 Féminine tree before they found their feet in UEFA’s trademark competition.
As the Swedish Damallsvenskan — which claimed two successive European crowns between 2002-2004, courtesy of Umeå — began to slip from their plinth in international competition, Lyon announced themselves in style, with their investment and facilities outshining their counterparts on the continent as the team continued to get bigger and better.
The lure of Lyon’s professionalism in the south of France was, it seems, too much for most footballers to refuse. Each piece of silverware only encouraged more of the creme de la creme to join the ranks of the dominant force in the women’s game in Europe. Yet Lyon have pushed the rest of that 1% of teams in Europe, daring them to find a way of matching all they can offer and produce in a bid to dethrone them as the de facto Queens of Europe. (A great case in point: Barcelona were seemingly unstoppable last season… until Lyon stopped them in the Champions League final.)
The team was built to see off the best teams on the continent that could boast a similar level of talent, but the landscape of football in France was a far cry from the upper echelons of the Champions League, and domestic competition for Lyon always had the look of being too easy as they made blowing part-time and amateur teams out of the water into their favourite pastime. The argument was always that the team was so stacked with talent that the levels in training would be enough to keep the players sharp in lieu of more taxing league match ups.
