Women’s Champions League draw LIVE: Chelsea, Arsenal and Man City discover group opponents in Nyon

Here we go with the montages! A big map of Europe, the locations of each team, a little zoom in on their location.

Draw ambassador today is German icon and Champions League winner Lira Alushi, an old teammate of Kessler’s.

They are on stage now discussing post-playing career work and how matters have changed since their days on the pitch.

“The big full stadiums, the organisation is just amazing!”

The draw will start shortly.

Nadine Kessler is on stage and there’s plenty of appreciation for last season, including greater viewing numbers than ever before.

A second women’s competition, coming into play for next season, is again mentioned along with the expanded Champions League and the new format we mentioned earlier.

Six teams making their debuts this year: Celtic, Galatasaray, Hammarby, Twente, Valerenga and the WSL’s own Man City.

Ok we’re about ready to go and Uefa are now live in Nyon - no doubt some of the usual ceremony and build-up video montages to come, then the draw itself will get underway.

Arsenal Women boss Jonas Eidevall after the win last night ensured they’d be in the UWCL:

“One part of the season starts now. This is what we wanted. We wanted to go into the group stage. We wanted to play in the league. We know it's going to be a lot of really challenging games, but it's going to be fun games as well, and we've built a squad to deal with it.”

And Chelsea boss Sonia Bompastor, speaking last week about trying to win it:

"If we don't achieve that goal I will be the one you need to blame. I am fine with that.

"Every day the vision in my head is really clear. I just came here to win with the team, with the squad and with the club every title. I know the club already won a lot of titles and had such a great success in past years. I just want to help them make the next step."

Next season the UWCL will follow the men’s version this year in terms of format, moving to an 18-team Swiss style league format where teams will play six matches.

For this year though we remain in four-team groups, also with six matches, and judging by the opening week of men’s UCL games...that’s far, far better for both viewing and different outcome potential.

Enjoy it while it lasts...

About 15 minutes until the draw starts...let’s come up with some dream scenarios for each side in the group stage.

Chelsea will feel they shouldn’t fear anyone, of course, but they would probably take Real Madrid, St Polten and Valerenga as a decent trio to deal with in the groups.

For second seeds Arsenal and City, perhaps you take the risk of an Barca or Lyon now to avoid them in the quarter-finals? Then Twente and Celtic - Battle of Britain, why not - to complete the group and bank on a top-two finish.

Last year Barcelona beat Lyon 2-0 in the final in Bilbao, making it a second straight win for the Catalan side and a fourth final appearance in a row.

The last time neither one of Barcelona or Lyon reached a final it was... 2015.

Can anybody break their run this time?

Here’s what they’ll all be playing for come the end of the season:

Goals from Beth Mead, Lia Walti, Maria Caldentey and Frida Maanum sent Arsenal through with a 4-0 win over Hacken last night after losing the first leg 1-0, while Celtic were comfortable once Emma Lawton scored just after the restart to make it one on the night and 2-0 on aggregate. Shannon McGregor later added another.

Man City were already five up from their first leg and made it eight on aggregate with Chloe Kelly scoring once and Bunny Shaw twice.

Elsewhere, the likes of Roma, Twente, Juventus and Real Madrid were among the sides winning their playoffs, while Fiorentina, PSG, Benfica and Servette were among those who exited.

Women’s and girls’ football sees record growth in historic four year period for the game

The success of the Lionesses has coincided with record growth in women’s and girls’ football, according to a new report from the Football Association.

The governing body said the number of women and girls playing football has increased by 56 per cent since the ‘inspiring positive change’ programme was launched in 2020 - since when England have become European champions in 2022 before reaching the World Cup final a year later.

Seventy-seven per cent of schools now offer girls equal access to football, up by 14 per cent, which breaks down as 88 per cent of primary schools and 50 per cent of secondary schools.

Seventy-three ‘emerging talent centres’ have been established to nurture young players in high-quality environments - with the talent base having grown by 265 per cent.

That has contributed to significant increases in the number of players from under-represented groups, up 127 per cent, and economically deprived areas, up 112 per cent.

More here:

Here’s a full list of match dates to mark - as well as when the draw will be made for the knock-out phase in the new year.

Group stage:

• Matchday 1: 8/9 October
• Matchday 2: 16/17 October
• Matchday 3: 12/13 November
• Matchday 4: 20/21 November
• Matchday 5: 11/12 December
• Matchday 6: 17/18 December

Quarter-final & semi-final draw: 7 February, Nyon

Quarter-finals:First leg: 18/19 March; Second leg: 26/27 March

Semi-finals:First leg: 19/20 April; Second leg: 26/27 April

Final: 23, 24 or 25 May tbc (Estadio Jose Alvalade, Lisbon)