MILAN (AP) — Two of the biggest teams meet in the Women’s Champions League on Thursday as defending champion Barcelona hosts Arsenal, with the two clubs having won the past four editions of the tournament.
Arsenal is facing a daunting task against the four-time champion. But it’s done it before.
Barcelona — which also won the title in 2021 — won the Champions League in three of the past four seasons but that run was interrupted by Arsenal, which beat the lauded Spanish team to win the 2025 final.
Barcelona currently tops the standings of the league phase and is the only side with a perfect record.
Arsenal, which has had a mixed start to the season, narrowly won 1-0 against HB Køge — which Barcelona thrashed 8-0 last time out — drew 2-2 with Paris FC before beating Benfica 3-0.
That match was one of the signs things are turning around for Arsenal, which has won two of its past three Women’s Super League matches — after only winning one of its opening six.
“There’s motivation and ambition to do better and turn this around among the staff and players, but I take full responsibility for the environment that we need to create,” Arsenal coach Renée Slegers said.
“I can only say we’ve been very specific with the type of actions we need to generate energy for us, but the players have been really engaged, speaking up a lot, and we’ve had two or three sessions where the energy has been really good.”
Barcelona has maximum points in the Champions League, with Arsenal, last season's runner-up OL Lyonnes and Chelsea two points further back.
High-scoring Lyonnes also has one of the meanest defenses. The only points it dropped were in a goalless draw against Chelsea — either side of a 8-0 rout of Servette and a 6-0 drubbing of Inter Milan.
It faces another Italian team in Juventus on Wednesday, while Chelsea — which has also yet to concede a goal — visits Häcken the previous day.
Manchester City has had a mixed return to the Champions League, drawing all three of its matches, and will be eager for a first win when it visits Inter on Tuesday.
City, which reached the quarterfinals two seasons ago, didn’t make it to the league phase of the Champions League last year but is back after its first year under coach Andrée Jeglertz, who helped the team end Chelsea’s dominance of the Women’s Super League to claim its first league title in a decade.
City again tops the table domestically, having won eight of its nine matches.
Elsewhere, Bayern — one of last year’s semifinalists — visits Paris Saint-Germain. The two teams are both on five points, four below Barcelona.
Real Madrid hosts Paris FC.
The league phase, in its second year, has 18 teams competing over six matchdays. The top four advance directly to the quarterfinals and the clubs finishing between fifth and 12th compete in knockout-phase playoffs in February.
The final will be played in Poland’s national stadium in Warsaw in late May.
___
