The past decade of the UEFA Women’s Champions League has largely been a story of Olympique Lyonnais’ dominance — with eight titles since 2010-11 — but a tasty subplot has been building in the background. While Lyon are still one of Europe’s best teams, the evolution of several teams is finally coming to the fore in the semifinals, with four diverse teams coming together over the next week in hopes of booking a spot in Eindhoven on June 3.
Fixtures:
– Chelsea vs. Barcelona (first leg April 22, second leg April 27)
– Wolfsburg vs. Arsenal (first leg April 23, second leg April 28)
Rather than a coronation, the Champions League feels more like a changing of the guard.
The tide is shifting towards a more open competition…
Save for a lone appearance by Tyreso FF in the 2013-14 final, Champions League audiences were well used to France and Germany’s might by the time Chelsea made their first appearance at the start of the 2015-16 season. Even before the tournament was rebranded in 2009-10, doing away with the old UEFA Women’s Cup moniker and cutting the final down to a one-legged event the following season, only Arsenal (2006-07) and Umea (2002-03 and 2003-04) had ever prevented a German or French team from winning the coveted silverware.
Yet some of the older names from the competition were fading; two-time champions Umea were fast slipping down the Swedish ranks, and independent Frauen-Bundesliga sides like FFC Frankfurt (now Eintracht) and Turbine Potsdam were struggling to keep step with VfL Wolfsburg and an emerging Bayern Munich side. By the time Chelsea took to the pitch for their first European outing, and doing it just four days after winning the WSL title for the first time, the golden girls of English football were tipped to be the team to upset the dominance of Lyon and Wolfsburg.
In truth, Chelsea were far too green and were knocked out of the competition in three straight seasons by Wolfsburg, before being narrowly dispatched by Lyon in the semi-finals in 2019. Away from the competition, Chelsea kept growing and evolving off of the pitch, with manager Emma Hayes using every opportunity to strengthen her squad and make her team better.
Away from Europe for the 2019-20 season following a sub-par domestic campaign that left them outside of the qualification places, the Blues came back with gusto, revitalised and ready to work every advantage to finally reach a Champions League final. It might not have been a picture-perfect run to the 2021 final for Chelsea, but the showpiece itself, played behind closed doors in Gothenburg, Sweden during the coronavirus pandemic, was the first final with no German or French participants since Arsenal’s win over Umea in 2007.
However, Hayes’ side could not get across the line, as Barcelona raced to a 4-0 lead inside 36 minutes and cantered to victory from there. If this experience is to be different, the Blues will have to show they are learning from past failures at this level.
