The draw for the second round of the Women’s Champions League play-offs took place this afternoon in Switzerland, at the UEFA headquarters. PSG Women will face Italian side Juventus, while Paris FC have been handed a draw against Manchester City.
In addition to the four teams that automatically qualified (FC Barcelona, Lyon, Bayern and Chelsea), twelve teams still have to win their ticket to the group stage of the Women’s Champions League. Among them, seven will qualify via the “Champions’ Path”, which will see the champions of the twelve best-ranked championships behind Spain, France, Germany and England compete. The PSG and Paris FC Women’s teams will go through the “League Path”, namely the ten teams second or third in the best championships.
In the draw held today in Nyon, Switzerland, PSG won against Juventus Turin. Bruno Hermant, women’s football specialistgives us some tips to prepare us for this two-way confrontation:
“Juve play in 433, like the club’s men’s teams. It can also happen that the team plays in 352. They rely on a rotating midfield, knowing that Jennifer Echegini, who played in midfield for them, signed for PSG this summer. Their squad has rotated a lot recently. They have lost a lot of players and they have recruited a lot, but not necessarily big names. PSG notably gave them Viola Calligaris and Amalie Vangsgaard, who were not even starters for us. The Juve team is therefore a notch below PSG but it remains a difficult team to maneuver. Be careful not to be overconfident, but normally, it should work for PSG.“
The matches of the confrontation between PSG and Juventus will be played on September 18 or 19 in Turin then September 25 or 26 at home for the return match. But in which stadiums?
“I know that the Italians played a few matches at the Juventus Stadium last season. I don’t know if they are planning to host Paris there for the qualifying matches. I hope so, because I am planning to make the trip! On the other hand The return match is scheduled at the PSG Campus in Poissy because the men’s team is scheduled to play at the Parc des Princes on September 27 against Stade Rennais, and UEFA requires the stadium to be blocked 24 hours before and 24 hours after a match. And from a logistical point of view, to switch the Parc back to Ligue 1 mode, it takes more than a day. So if the return match for the Women’s team is played on September 25 or 26, it will be impossible to play at the Parc des Princes.”
Please note in any case: In the UEFA club rankings, PSG are in third place behind Barcelona and Lyon, while Juventus are in tenth place.
