Arsenal are entering the UEFA Women’s Champions League in qualifying Round 2 and we know now who will be our potential opponents.

Moscow, Russia, August 21th 2021: Teamphoto Arseanl prior to the UEFA Womens Champions League Round 1 football match between Arsenal and PSV Eindhoven at Sapsan Arena in Moscow, Russia. Mikhail Sinitsyn UEFA Womens Champions League - Arsenal v PSV Eindhoven
Moscow, Russia, August 21th 2021: Teamphoto Arseanl prior to the UEFA Womens Champions League Round 1 football match between Arsenal and PSV Eindhoven at Sapsan Arena in Moscow, Russia. Mikhail Sinitsyn UEFA Womens Champions League – Arsenal v PSV Eindhoven

The format is the same as last season with a Group stage with 16 teams in total, with four groups of four teams.

Four teams have qualified directly.

The holders Lyon and the champions from the top three ranked countries (France, Germany and England) that is Lyon, Wolfsburg and Chelsea.

Barcelona are the fourth team going through because Lyon are holders and French champions.

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Spain being the fourth ranked country get the vacated seat by Lyon.

There are two qualifying paths for the Group stage, one for the champions and one for the runner-ups and third-placed teams from the top 12 associations.

Seven teams will qualify for the Group stage in the Champions path, while only five will qualify via the League path.

Arsenal are competing in the League path after finishing Runners-up to Chelsea.

In that path, five teams will be seeded and drawn against the unseeded teams according to their club coefficient as per below:

UEFA Women’s Champions League draw seeded:

  • (Fra) Paris Saint-Germain CC: 85.666
  • (Ger) Bayern Munich CC: 84.133
  • (Eng) Arsenal CC: 39.200
  • (Cze) Sparta Prague CC: 34.766
  • (Esp) Real Madrid CC: 26.233

UEFA Women’s Champions League draw unseeded:

  • (Ned) Ajax CC: 20.900
  • (Swe) BK Häcken CC: 20.833
  • (Esp) Real Sociedad CC: 13.233
  • (Nor) Rosenborg CC: 6.500
  • (Ita) Roma CC: 5.900

It means Arsenal can draw Ajax, Häcken, Real Sociedad, Rosenborg or Roma.

Arsenal will be favourites against any of those teams, but will need to be aware of Ajax’s strength. The Dutch side defeated the third-placed teams from Sweden and Germany.

Häcken, who are the Swedish runners-ups, would also be another tough draw.

In the Champions path, some of the teams that will make it through to the group stage will certainly be weaker than some teams eliminated in Round 1 from the League path.

Scotland champions’ Glasgow Rangers might make it if they get a favourable draw.

UEFA Women’s Champions League draw seeded:

  • (Cze) Slavia Prague CC: 47.766
  • (Swe) Rosengård CC: 38.833
  • (Ita) Juventus CC: 30.900
  • (Aut) St. Pölten CC: 25.700
  • (Swi) Zürich CC: 22.500
  • (Alb) Vllaznia CC: 14.400
  • (Por) Benfica CC: 13.600

UEFA Women’s Champions League draw unseeded:

  • (Bih) SFK 2000 Sarajevo CC: 11.400
  • (Ukr) Zhytlobud-2 Kharkiv CC: 10.200
  • (Den) HB Køge CC: 9.550
  • (Isl) Valur CC: 8.350
  • (Nor) Brann CC: 4.500
  • (Sco) Rangers CC: 4.400
  • (Fin) KuPS CC: 1.900

UEFA Women’s Champions League draw procedure

The draw will take place on the 1st September at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon at 12pm UK time.

The teams are split into two pots: seeded and unseeded.

The seven teams in the Champions path and the five teams in the League paths with the highest coefficients are seeded.

One ball is taken from each bowl and placed in a large empty bowl, where they are shuffled.

The first team drawn first will play its first match at home against the second team drawn.

The same procedure is carried out with the remaining balls to complete all the round two pairings.

Winning the tournament will be hard for the Gunners, but they should really aim to do one better than last season and reach the semi-finals.

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