💫 ❓ Four questions as the UWCL returns for the quarter-finals | OneFootball

The Women’s Champions League is back at the quarter-final stage!

And here are four things we are asking ourselves ahead of the quarter-final first legs.

Can Real Madrid test Barcelona?

There are two ways to look at the gap between Barcelona and Real Madrid. On the one hand, it’s enormous. On the other, it’s closing.

Real Madrid have won 13 of their last 16 games in all competitions. In the other three they’ve faced Barcelona and lost 3-1, 1-0 and, most recently, 5-0, a result that saw Barça clinch the Spanish league title already.

It goes without saying that reigning Champions League holders are the gold standard in women’s football and they came through the group stage having dominated every single match. Across all competitions this season they have played 34 and won 34.

Can Madrid lay a glove on them and take some sort of result into the second leg or is that gap still to big to even consider an upset?

Are Wolfsburg getting back to their best?

Wolfsburg’s recent history is enormous but suffered a blip last season, as Bayern Munich became the first team to pip them to the Bundesliga title since 2016. They were also knocked out of the Champions League by someone other than Lyon, who went on to win the competition every year in that stretch, for the first time since 2015.

Now? Now the two-time Champions League winners are top of the Frauen Bundesliga again and knocked Chelsea, the side who sent them packing at the quarter-final stage last season, out of Europe.

And they’ve already moved to add Frankfurt goalkeeper Merle Frohms and impressive teenage midfielder Jule Brand to their squad in the summer.

There’s plenty of talk about the WSL being the biggest and best but that’s an empty claim as long as English clubs aren’t leading the way in European competition and Wolfsburg are out to reassert themselves after a disappointing 2020/21.

Will Juventus challenge Lyon again?

It was close, closer than most expected, when these sides met in the knockout rounds last season. And Juve have been solid again this time out under ex-Arsenal boss Joe Montemurro, drawing 0-0 at Chelsea and taking four points from Wolfsburg to get out of the group of death.

But Lyon are a huge test.

Having won the Champions League five seasons in a row, they exited at this stage a year ago and ended the season trophy-less, ending a run of 14 consecutive French titles.

They’re back on course now, top of the league and perhaps the team most capable of matching Barcelona, and will want to lay down a huge marker. With all-time Champions League top goalscorer Ada Hegerberg back after 20 months out, you wouldn’t bet against them.

Can Bayern or PSG continue upsetting the old guard?

Bayern and PSG upset the Apfel and pomme carts of Germany and France respectively last season, winning their domestic titles and ending the dominance of Wolfsburg and Lyon.

They aren’t currently set to do the same again but they are competing at the very top and were very impressive in the group stages, where Bayern beat Lyon 1-0 (and lost to them 2-1 in their only defeat) and PSG won all six games, including a 4-0 demolition of Real Madrid, without conceding a goal.

The European football order had been dictated by Wolfsburg and Lyon for almost a decade.

That mantel has been taken by Barcelona now but these two clubs are determined to show they could be the next big thing in the women’s game.