Arsenal Women Face Barcelona and Lyon in Tough Women’s Champions League Draw

Arsenal women have a tough draw and will face the holders Barcelona and eight-time champions Lyon in their league phase of the Women’s Champions League. Meanwhile, Chelsea will travel to Lyon and Manchester City will go up against last season’s semi-finalists Bayern Munich.

Arsenal will play hosts to Lyon, Benfica and HD Koge, a club from Denmark, who they beat in both home and away matches in the 2021-22 season. Renee Sleger’s side will travel to face Barcelona, Paris FC and Inter Milas as they will look to reclaim the European title, which they had won in 2025.

Chelsea, the runners up in 2020-21 will play Paris St-Germain (PSG), Roma and Austria Wien, the league phase debutants in London. The Blues manager, Sonia Bompastor will be reunited with her former club Lyon when Chelseas face the record Champions League winners in France, with trips to Swedish side Hacken and OH Leuven in Belgium to complete their schedule.

After missing out on European football in the previous season, Women’s Super League champions Manchester City were placed in pot three but have avoided the toughest draw. Other matches to look out for in the draw are between Barcelona and Bayern Munich who will replay their 2025-25 semi-final in Munich, as well as the German side travelling to France to face PSG.

Arsenal and Chelsea were in pot one, while Manchester City in pot three. Each team’s match schedule will be confirmed by UEFA on Saturday and the first matchday of the league phase will be played on 22 and 23 September with the sixth and final games to take place on 16 December. The final in Warsaw, Poland is scheduled for the final week of May.

Here is a full League phase dates

Matchday 1 - 22/23 September

Matchday 2 - 30 September/1 October

Matchday 3 - 28/29 October

Matchday 4 - 10/11 November

Matchday 5 - 18/19 November

Matchday 6 - 16 December