Women’s Champions League draw LIVE: Chelsea, Arsenal and Man City to learn quarter-final opponents

Last year’s winners Barcelona are the most successful team in the competition’s recent history, having won the tournament in 2021, 2023 and 2024 (as well as being runners-up in 2022).

Led by Ballon d’or holder Aitana Bonmati, the Catalan club are once again favourites this season, as they bid to become just the second club to win three titles in a row.

Last season, they beat Lyon 2-0 in the final thanks to goals from Bonmati and fellow Ballon d’Or winner Alexia Putellas.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Barcelona are the overwhelming bookies’ favourites to win this year’s Champions League, with the holders priced as low as 11/8.

Last season’s runners-up Lyon are second favourites, with Chelsea priced in third.

Arsenal and Manchester City are the outside shouts, with the Gunners slightly favoured at present.

Manchester City striker Khadija Shaw withdrew from her team’s League Cup semi-final against Arsenal on Thursday night after suffering racist and misogynistic abuse.

City reported the messages to the police and confirmed that the Jamaica international did not take part in Thursday’s League Cup tie against the same opposition to protect her mental well-being.

Sonia Bompastor dismissed talk of winning a quadruple with Chelsea after the Blues reached their first final under the French coach.

Chelsea defeated West Ham 2-0 on Wednesday night to progress to their sixth Women’s League Cup final in a row – where they will face either Arsenal or Manchester City.

Chelsea also hold a seven-point lead at the top of the Women’s Super League and are through to the quarter-finals of the Women’s Champions League – a trophy they have yet to win.

So when will the next ties be played? Below is a rundown of the dates for each of the next rounds.

Saturday 24 May (Estadio Jose Alvalade, Lisbon)

Teams who participated in the same groups in the group stage cannot face each other in the next round – this is the only thing preventing teams from playing each other.

To that end, the teams who can’t face each other in the next round are as follows:

Group A: Lyon + Wolfsburg

Group B: Chelsea + Real Madrid

Group C: Arsenal + Bayern Munich

Group D: Barcelona + Manchester City

Group winners (seeded): Lyon (FRA), Chelsea (ENG), Arsenal (ENG), Barcelona (ESP)

Runners-up (unseeded): Wolfsburg (GER), Real Madrid (ESP), Bayern Munich (GER), Manchester City (ENG)

The four group winners will be drawn against runners-up from a different group in the quarter-finals. The group winners will be seeded and will play at home in the second leg. The draw then repeats for the semi-final, where no teams are seeded. There is no country protection at any stage of the knockout draw.

The draw for the quarter-finals and semi-finals takes place at 12pm UK time (GMT) on Friday 7 February. You can watch a live stream of the draw on the Uefa website or on DAZN.

The Women’s Champions League knockout stage draw takes place ahead of the quarter-finals, and for the first time since under the new format there will be three English teams in the hat.

Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester City all progressed through the group stages and join the holders Barcelona, as well as Lyon, Wolfsburg, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid, in the draw.

Arsenal were the last English team to win the European Cup in 2007 and the Gunners also progressed as group winners under Renee Slegers, while City are through to their first Champions League quarter-final since 2021.

Teams from the same country can play each other in the quarter-finals, so there is a chance of an all-English clash as the path to the Lisbon final is set.