The UEFA Women’s Champions League semi-final first legs take place this weekend, with holders Barcelona hosting Wolfsburg of Germany at the Nou Camp in front of another sold-out crowd on Friday, and seven-time winners Lyon facing Paris Saint-Germain on Sunday in an all-French tie.
It’s a big moment for the rebranded and revamped competition, which has seen big games in main club stadiums and over 14 million viewers for the group stages alone. The UWCL finally has that “special European night” feel to it.
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But no English clubs will be involved in this weekend’s action, after Manchester City failed to qualify for the 12-team group stage and both Chelsea (group) and Arsenal (quarter-finals) were dumped out by Wolfsburg.
Across the competition’s 21-year history, England have had 12 semi-finalists, which isn’t bad going.
City have made the last four twice, in 2016 and 2018, Chelsea were runners-up last year having got to back-to-back semis in 2018 and 2019. Arsenal have struggled since becoming the only English team to win the competition 15 years ago, reaching the semi-finals three years in a row from 2011 but not returning to the final since that 2007 triumph.
Last year, it seemed as if Chelsea might match Arsenal’s historic victory, but they were absolutely blown away by Barcelona in the final, conceding within the first minute, and down by the final score of 4-0 before half-time.
That game felt like a gut punch for English teams, not just because of the humbling that was dished out to Emma Hayes’ side, but because it signalled the start of what many think will be a Barcelona stranglehold on the title. But, after lacklustre showings from all of the WSL sides in this year’s competition, it now seems as if it won’t just be a Barcelona supremacy on the cards but a pan-continental superiority over domestic challengers.
There is always a level of English arrogance when it comes to football. An expectation that its teams should be winning it all, merely because they hail from a country that claims to have invented the sport.
In women’s football circles, there’s a constant back and forth and rivalry over which of the few fully-professional leagues is better, the WSL in England or NWSL in the USA. Most would probably side with the English competition. I think.
The WSL was the first full-time professional league in Europe and with that, there is an expectation of dominance over other European nations.
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Last year, the hype and hope for Chelsea were huge, especially in the English football vacuum. Barcelona had already shown their quality en route to the final, but it was still shocking to see one of England’s best, who had impressed throughout 2020-21, albeit with some Champions League scares, not even come close to making a game of it.
The 2021-22 Champions League has almost been a months-long recreation of that 90 minutes: English teams coming up short against superior opposition from Spain and Germany.
The question of closing the gap to Barcelona now feels like it’s shifted to closing the gap to German, Spanish and French teams… and even maybe Juventus of Italy, too.
One poor European campaign isn’t enough to announce an unshrinkable gap exists between the best in continental Europe and the best in England, but this season has been a wake-up call for what makes a Champions League-winning side and what is missing for Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City.
This season’s UWCL final four are clubs with fairly big budgets, which the best in the WSL have too, but there are plenty of other elements that those four have beyond transfer fees and wage offerings.
Style of play, identity and culture are the key ingredients to these semi-finalists, and their success. Whether it’s the possession-based suffocation of Barcelona, the devastating front three at PSG or the hyper-organisation of Wolfsburg, those teams have a distinct way of playing that brings them joy.
Arsenal have a relatively new coach in summer appointment Jonas Eidevall and have blended their style of play between pressing and being direct. They have played the second half of this season with star striker Vivianne Miedema in a deeper role behind Stina Blackstenius, which has had mixed results.
Chelsea have continued to press successfully in lots of their games but have struggled to play out from the back with a nervy and at times error-prone defence, while also wasting lots of chances.
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All of the UWCL semi-finalists are ruthless going forward. In this season’s competition, Barcelona have averaged an xG of 4.11 and scored an average of four goals per game. Similarly, PSG have an xG of 2.8 and are averaging 3.8 goals, for Lyon it’s 2.5 and 2.7, while Wolfsburg are at 2.1 and 2.5.
Compare that to Arsenal (2.4 in both metrics) and Chelsea (2.4 and 2.2) and you see a drop in good chances created and finished. Chelsea’s failure to progress beyond the group stage was epitomised by an inability to find a way past Joe Montemurro’s Juventus at home in December. Chelsea had 25 shots but only five were on target, and the game ended 0-0.
Chelsea and Arsenal can field some of the finest attacking talent in Europe but the clinical finishing and attacking versatility has been missing.
The two London teams are also unified in their defensive issues.
In key Champions League moments this season, the Arsenal and Chelsea back lines have made big errors. They have high-quality individual players but not a consistent and confident defensive group able to cope against Europe’s best.
The competitiveness of the WSL, which is now arguably the tightest it’s ever been across the whole league, should be an advantage for the English teams in Europe as the level they’re playing every week is much tougher. In contrast, the final four are all in domestic leagues where they barely register a defeat all season. But it’s not proving a problem, because when they’re getting to crunch time in Europe, they are unfazed and can tap into the elite level required to win.
English sides are missing the all-important factor of time, too.
The UWCL final-four squads have largely been together for a few years, are blended well and are peaking at the right time. Chelsea are coming to the end of the first project that got them to a UWCL final and will need to recruit in the summer to get them there again, while Arsenal are at step one of first-year boss Eidevall’s plan and have already had back-to-back windows of heavy recruitment.
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The resources are there for Arsenal, Chelsea and City to get back to the big games in Europe but they need to find their identity, master the art of performing on the biggest stage and playing their best when it matters most.
At the moment they are falling behind as the rest of Europe lay down a marker.
(Photo: Filippo Alfero – Juventus FC/Juventus FC via Getty Images)