Between today and tomorrow, the UEFA Women’s Champions League quarter-final table will be completed, with the dispute of the last day of the group stage, which five teams face with great objectives and another three with small challenges.
It has already been decided that PSG and Barcelona, who have won everything, will pass as seeds, and Real Madrid as second in their group. In D, Olympique and Bayern already have their tickets but the order of classification remains to be decided. The French team, which hosts Hacken today (18.45), starts with two points ahead of the Germans, who host Benfica (18.45).
The greatest emotions are reserved for Group A. Chelsea (leader with 11 points), Juventus (2nd with 8) and Wolfsburg (3rd with 8) come to the last day with options to pass. The Italian champion is the one who has it the best. He receives the weak Servette tomorrow (21.00) and will qualify if he wins or if he draws and Wolfsburg does not win. The AOK Stadion thing will be heart-stopping because the Germans host Chelsea there tomorrow (21.00) forced to win … and wait. For Londoners, one point is enough to secure first place. The Wolfsburg thing – which last season fell in the quarterfinals against Chelsea, losing 3-0 at home – is much more complicated. If he scores more points than Juve, he will be in the round of 16 but it is difficult to think that the black and white team could stumble upon Servette. If Juve wins and so does Juve, we will have to take out the calculator because the two will tie at eleven points with Chelsea, the tie will also occur in the confrontations between the three teams and everything will depend on the general golaverage – better right now for English and Italians albeit narrowly – and, therefore, the scoreboard with which the AOK game ends. A real madness.
Lastly, in Group C, Hoffenheim and Arsenal will play second place today at Dietmar Hopp (21.00) and go to the quarterfinals, face to face. The truth is that the English have everything in their favor, with three points of advantage and the golaverage on their side: Hoffenheim will only unseat them if they beat them by more than five goals.
In that same group, the Koge will be one of those looking for his little target. Giant, actually, because he will try to score his first point in his visit to Barcelona. The first goal is what Breidablik want on their visit to Paris Saint Germain. And the two premieres, point and goal, will be sought by the Servette in Turin.
Professionalization in limbo half a year later
On June 15, the Board of Directors of the Higher Sports Council unanimously approved the professionalization of the First Division of women’s soccer. Today marks six months of that great step, welcomed with joy, and the professional League is still in limbo.
The entity, made up of the First-Class clubs, that should govern the competition has not been established and the previous step has not even been taken, the approval of the League statutes. Even with an extension, they should have been ready by September 15 and although twelve of the 16 clubs presented a proposal that the other four oppose, the Higher Sports Council has not accepted it. The governmental body, “guardian” of the process and of the competition itself during the next three years, demands unanimity, without any legal support and that, in reality, allows the minority party, aligned with the Spanish Federation, to exercise a kind of right of «veto».
One of the consequences is the loss of the contract with Mediapro, which is affecting the finances of the clubs and threatens the fulfillment of the agreement. The players, fed up, have already started the protests and can go on strike.
Coming soon
Working day. The 14th day, the penultimate of the year and the first round, starts on Saturday with a derby. The Royal visit to Eibar (11.30am), initially in Unbe. Also on Saturday, Athletic visits Granadilla (19.00), which is ahead of them by just one point. Alavés, meanwhile, will round off their week by hosting Levante at the Mendizorrotza stadium on Sunday (5:00 pm).
Top. Irene Paredes rounded off her great year by scoring one of the goals in Barcelona’s victory over Real Madrid (1-3) and placing eighth in the prestigious Top 100 of the year by “The Guardian”, led by her partner Alexia Putellas. The captain culé, in addition, received on Monday the Creu de Sant Jord, one of the greatest distinctions made by the Generalitat.
Second. Osasuna beat Racing (3-0) and Athletic B over Seagull (3-0) on matchday 12, the last match before the Christmas break. The red and white remain sixth and the red and white subsidiary rises to 11th place in a classification that goes on to lead Deportivo after their victory (3-0, with a goal by Jone Ibáñez) against Levante Las Planas, now one point behind the Galician team .
Argentinian. Boca Juniors, who had won the Clausura, is the champion of Argentina after defeating the winner of the Apertura, San Lorenzo de Almagro (2-4).
Mexico. Tigres come back from the semifinal against América and will be in the final. Monterrey and Atlas tied in the overall tie (2-1 and 1-0) but the best classification of the Rayadas in the regular league puts them in the final, which will be played on December 17 and 20 in two games.
NWSL. Warm up the new season, full of news. The Federation will no longer pay the salary of its internationals, who will be able to sign longer contracts. Tomorrow the Expansion Draft will be held, by which the new franchises, San Diego Wave and Angel City, will be able to “snatch” nine footballers from the rest of the teams, with the exception of Kansas City. Christen Press has already signed with Angel City and Alex Morgan is going to San Diego.
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