Chelsea, Atlético and Co seek away comebacks
Monday, November 16, 2015
Article summary
Chelsea's four ex-Arsenal players are looking for a good omen as they go to Wolfsburg, one of five teams defending last-16 second-leg leads at home, including Frankfurt and Lyon.
Article top media content
Article body
The UEFA Women's Champions League quarter-final lineup will be decided on Wednesday and Thursday with five teams taking leads into home round of 16 second legs.
Holders Frankfurt, former winners Lyon and Wolfsburg plus Barcelona and Rosengård all secured away victories last week to put themselves in line to take part in the next stage come March. Slavia Praha and Brescia will be on their travels hoping to earn maiden quarter-finals while Anja Mittag could be the first to 50 goals in this competition as Paris Saint-Germain take on KIF Örebro.
UEFA.com previews the eight ties, with the quarter-final draw scheduled for 27 November.
Wednesday's games
Wolfsburg (2-1) Chelsea
Caroline Graham Hansen came off the bench to give two-time champions victory at English double winners Chelsea last Wednesday – leaving the debutants with a tough task against a Wolfsburg side who have lost just once in 14 European home games, winning 12. Still, Chelsea's Gilly Flaherty, Gemma Davison, Katie Chapman and Niamh Fahey will have happy memories of being in the Arsenal team that three years ago at this stage went to Germany and triumphed 4-3 at Turbine Potsdam.
Paris Saint-Germain (1-1) KIF Örebro
Anja Mittag, who revived her career in Sweden with Rosengård, returned to the Nordic country last week to equalise for Paris, thereby becoming the outright all-time leading scorer in UEFA women's club competition with 49 goals.
Fortuna Hjørring (0-1) Brescia
Brescia beat Liverpool 1-0 home and away to reach the last 16 for the first time and repeated that scoreline against the 2003 runners-up. Indeed, the omens are not good for Denmark's Fortuna, who have gone out in this round in the last six seasons – their only European campaigns save for their final run.
Barcelona (1-0) Twente
A Dutch-record crowd for a women's game, of over 15,000, watched the first leg at the FC Twente Stadium in Enschede, which will stage the UEFA Women's EURO 2017 final. Despite the narrow loss, sole qualifying round survivors Twente showed in the round of 32 that they can travel well when, held 1-1 at home by German champions Bayern München, they then drew 2-2 away to advance on away goals.
Lyon (3-1) Atlético Madrid
Two-time winners Lyon look in control but at least Atlético Madrid (together with Chelsea and debutants Örebro) boast the consolation of having been the first team to score past the French champions in their 12th match this season. In fact, Lyon had last let in a goal 1,314 minutes ago, when Sofia Jakobsson put Montpellier ahead in a French Cup semi-final they were to lose 2-1. OL have not been beaten by a two-goal margin since March 2010, and last lost by such a score at home when they crashed 4-0 to Montpellier in an October 2004 league game. On Tuesday Ada Hegerberg and Elodie Thomis signed contract extentions for Lyon.
FFC Frankfurt (2-0) LSK Kvinner
The holders left recent poor domestic form behind them to beat the Norwegian champions in Lillestrom last week. However, whatever the result on Wednesday, LSK will be back next term courtesy of their domestic title success.
Thursday's games
Rosengård (3-1) Verona
Mittag may have quit the Swedish champions for Paris in the summer but Rosengård still count on this competition's third-highest scorer Marta, who took her tally to 43 with the opener in Italy last Thursday.
Zvezda-2005 (1-2) Slavia Praha
Last week's victory at the Eden Stadium against a team who won their fifth Russian league title at the weekend has given Slavia the chance to emulate Sparta Praha, the Czech Republic's sole previous quarter-finalists in 2005/06.
Road to the final
Quarter-final & Semi-final draw: 27 November
Quarter-finals: 23/24 & 30/31 March
Semi-finals: 23/24 & 30 April/1 May
Final (Reggio Emilia): 26 May