Manchester City to face holders Barcelona in Women’s Champions League
Chelsea will face Celtic and Real Madrid in their first campaign under Sonia Bompastor, while Arsenal have been drawn in the same group as Bayern Munich
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Manchester City will play holders Barcelona in the group stage of the Women’s Champions League.
Women’s Super League champions Chelsea and Scottish title winners Celtic have been drawn in the same pool, while Arsenal have Bayern Munich in theirs.
As well as Barca, Gareth Taylor’s City will also face Austrian side St Polten and Sweden’s Hammarby in Group D.
City on Thursday completed an 8-0 aggregate victory over Paris FC to secure a return to the competition - they will be involved for the first time since 2020-21, having been eliminated in the qualifying stages two years in a row, then fallen short of a European berth when they came fourth in the WSL in 2022-23. They finished second last season.
Chelsea and Celtic are in Group B, along with Real Madrid and Twente.
Chelsea won 14 major trophies under Emma Hayes but are yet to taste Champions League glory, going closest when they were runners-up in 2021.
In Sonia Bompastor, who succeeded Hayes over the summer, they are managed by the coach who guided Lyon to success in the competition the following year. She subsequently oversaw the French side being beaten by Barca in last season’s final in Bilbao.
Celtic became the first team from Scotland to reach the group stages of the competition with a 2-0 win over Ukrainian side Vorskla Poltova on Thursday, Elena Sadiku’s outfit triumphing 3-0 on aggregate.
Arsenal’s opponents aside from Bayern in Group C will be Juventus and Norwegian team Valerenga.
Jonas Eidevall’s Gunners are also back, after turning around their qualifier against Hacken to go through 4-1 on aggregate on Thursday. They were semi-finalists in 2022-23, before being knocked out in the qualifying rounds last term.
Group A features Lyon, Wolfsburg, Roma and Galatasaray.
The group matches begin on October 8 and 9, while the final in May takes place in Lisbon.
PA
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