UEFA Women's Champions League: Players to watch on Matchday 3
Tuesday, November 12, 2024
Article summary
We highlight four players with key roles in the third set of group games.
Article top media content
Article body
The UEFA Women's Champions League group stage continues on Tuesday and Wednesday with Matchday 3.
We look at four players looking to boost their teams' chances as the groups begin to take shape.
Caitlin Foord (Arsenal)
It has been a turbulent start to the season for Arsenal, not least with a change of manager. But the form of Australian winger Foord (who turned 30 on Monday) has been a consistent source of cheer for Gunners fans from the first game of the campaign, when she scored four goals in the 6-0 Champions League round 1 semi-final defeat of Rangers that began Arsenal's run to a group stage return.
In the 2-1 home loss to Chelsea that proved the final game under Jonas Eidevall, Foord at least delighted the 45,000-plus crowd with a spectacular solo run and strike. A few days later, with caretaker Renée Slegers now in charge, Foord scored again as Vålerenga were defeated 4-1 to bounce back from the opening group loss at Bayern München. Foord has proved deadly down the left as well as her more natural right of late and again will have a big part to play in the crucial double-header with Juventus.
Amy Gallacher (Celtic)
Gallacher joined Celtic from Hibernian in 2022 and it was a 90th-minute winner against her old club in May that gave the Glasgow club their first league title, pipping Rangers on goal difference. That strike, Gallacher's 25th of the campaign, came at Celtic Park, and it is there they return on Wednesday for their first European fixture at the stadium, welcoming Chelsea.
Having earned Scotland's first-ever group stage spot, Celtic have lost to Twente and Real Madrid and now face a team who defeated both those clubs. But Gallacher, from a footballing family including Celtic legend Patsy (her great-grandfather), missed the opening home loss to Twente through injury and is now firmly back in the attack.
Jennifer Klein (St. Pölten)
It gets no easier for St. Pölten as, after losing at Hammarby and pushing Manchester City all the way before a 3-2 home defeat, they now must visit Barcelona. The Austrian champions will need their key players at the top of their form and few are more pivotal than captain Klein at the heart of the St. Pölten defence.
Klein, who as a teenager was part of the Austria squad that reached the UEFA Women's EURO 2017 semi-finals, rejoined St. Pölten in 2020 after two years with Hoffenheim and took over as captain last season. Part of the St. Pölten back lines that have already visited the likes of Wolfsburg and Lyon in previous group campaigns, Klein will need to call on all that experience and leadership know-how as they face the holders.
Andrea Stašková (Galatasaray)
Just ahead of their European debut in September's round 1, Galatasaray made a number of international signings including Czechia forward Stašková from AC Milan. A quarter-finalist in 2021/22 with Juventus, when she scored in the second leg against Lyon, Stašková made an immediate impact for Galatasaray with four goals in their successful qualifying campaign including a double at home to Slavia Praha, her former city rivals in her time at Sparta.
Stašková then got Galatasaray's first-ever group goal in the home loss to Roma and as they look to get off the mark against Wolfsburg on Wednesday, she could be the key again. After all, in Juve's 2021/22 run, it was Stašková who showed a cool head to strike in added time to clinch a 2-0 win at Wolfsburg that proved crucial to her side getting to that tie with Lyon.