The 2024/25 UEFA Women’s Champions League semifinals will be decided over the next two days, as the second leg of the home-and-away quarterfinals cuts Europe’s surviving eight teams down to four.

Each of the first-leg victors boasts a multi-goal advantage over their opponents, with three-time UWCL winners — and defending champs — Barcelona leading the way after taking a 4-1 victory from German side Wolfsburg.

Eight-time champions Lyon also have a Bundesliga club on the ropes thanks to a 2-0 first-leg win over Bayern Munich.

Perennial winners aside, the knockout round’s most anticipated storylines belong to the three remaining English clubs: Arsenal, Manchester City, and Chelsea.

While Chelsea FC is enjoying an eight-point lead on the WSL table, they're position in UWCL play is far more perilous. Earlier this month, former former Arsenal striker Vivianne Miedema boosted City over the Blues with a brace in the pair's first quarterfinal meeting.

Thursday will see the second all-WSL clash of the Champions League quarters, as the match also marks an unusual fourth consecutive meeting between the two teams, with Chelsea winning the League Cup final earlier this month as well as the pair's Sunday WSL meeting — both by 2-1 scorelines.

Like the Blues, Arsenal’s Champions League campaign is similarly down to the wire, as the Gunners attempt to climb out of a 2-0 hole against Real Madrid on Wednesday. This time, however, Arsenal will hold a home-pitch advantage, hosting Las Blancas at the iconic Emirates Stadium — a significant boost after a first-leg match marred by particularly slippery playing conditions.

How to watch the 2024/25 UEFA Champions League quarterfinals

The second and final leg of the UWCL quarterfinals kicks off on Wednesday, with Lyon hosting Bayern Munich at 1:45 PM ET before Real Madrid visits Arsenal at 4 PM ET.

Thursday will determine the last two semifinalists, as Barcelona takes on Wolfsburg at 1:45 PM ET before the all-WSL face-off between Chelsea and Manchester City begins at 4 PM ET.

All Champions League matches will stream live on DAZN.

Barcelona captain and two-time Ballon d’Or winner Alexia Putellas will undergo knee surgery on Wednesday, the club announced Tuesday.

The Spain forward left national team training camp last month due to a knee injury, which has also left her sidelined from recent Barcelona matches. She hasn’t played since being sidelined at the half of the club’s Champions League win over Benfica on Nov. 14.

She’s missed the last seven matches for Barcelona.

“Barcelona women’s football star Alexia Putellas is undergoing this Wednesday 27 December an arthroscopy on her left knee,” the club said in its statement. “The club will be making an official medical announcement once the operation has concluded.”

According to The Athletic, both the club and staff were concerned with tests that concluded she didn’t have a serious injury. An additional opinion was sought over what is reportedly an ongoing issue, and next steps included surgery.

Putellas missed the 2022 European Championship with an ACL injury, but was part of the Spain team that won the World Cup earlier this year.

The 29-year-old, who has played in 408 games for Barcelona since arriving in 2012, is out of contract this summer. While a new contract has been offered to her at Barcelona, she’s also been linked to the NWSL, the league for which is where Barcelona coach Jonatan Giraldez is rumored to be leaving upon the conclusion of the season.

She’s won 25 trophies with Barcelona, including seven Liga F titles and two Champions League trophies.

U.S. women’s national team star and captain Lindsey Horan was sent off on Thursday in Lyon’s Champions League matchup against Brann, which ended in a 2-2 draw.

After colliding with Brann’s Karoline Haugland, Horan got into it with Haugland and the referee. Initially, the referee had shown a yellow card to Horan, but it was subsequently upgraded to a red card. The removal of Horan forced Lyon down to 10 players and Brann equalized in stoppage time to secure a point.

Lyon held a 2-0 lead at one point in the match and were up 2-1 at the time of Horan’s red card. The draw ended Lyon’s stellar start to the season, in which they won 15 consecutive games.

Following the match, Lyon manager Sonia Bompastor said the referee had misunderstood the situation, and who Horan was yelling at.

“[Horan] is fouled from behind, she is a player who suffers a lot of fouls, she has already had injuries due to these tackles from behind, she was scared,” Bompastor told reporters. “She said ‘my f—ing knee’ in English. The referee understood that she was talking to her, she thought Lindsay had insulted her.”

The game marked Horan’s first start for Lyon in just over three weeks. She had missed some time due to an ankle sprain, according to the club.

Christen Press believes that the NWSL is one of the most entertaining leagues in the world.

On the latest episode of The RE-CAP Show, Press discusses the action in the NWSL Championship with co-host Tobin Heath. Gotham FC held off OL Reign 2-1 on Nov. 11 to win their first championship and send Ali Krieger off into retirement on a high note.

“I asked for this match to showcase the NWSL at its best,” said Press, a two-time World Cup champion with the U.S. women’s national team. “And say what you will about the NWSL, the style of play, transition, yada yada — I think it’s the most entertaining league in the world.

“It’s open, it’s energetic, and there’s tons of goals, and I think we got the NWSL at its best during this final match.”

This comes as debate has gone on about which is better: European leagues or the NWSL. Gotham FC forward and World Cup champion Esther González of Spain praised the NWSL for its level of play.

“One of the biggest differences with the Spanish League, which is a great league, is that here all the games, absolutely all of them, are like a Champions League game, at the highest level,” she said after the championship game. “In Spain, there are some games that you can win four or five to zero, that your physical wear and tear is normal, that you have everything under control.

“Here, every game is like playing against Barça, which is the best team in the Spanish League: Your level has to be the maximum, your physical demand is the maximum, and that happens weekend after weekend.”

But others, like USWNT star Lindsey Horan, have opted for Europe and the Champions League. USWNT teammates Mia Fishel and Catarina Macario are also overseas, playing for Chelsea, whose coach Emma Hayes was just announced as the next manager of the USWNT.

And Horan would like to see more USWNT players head overseas to get acquainted with different styles of play.

“I’ve heard of [American] players wanting to [move to Europe],” Horan told Pro Soccer Wire. “Obviously, it’s comfortable in the NWSL and I won’t take anything away from the league, but for me, [playing abroad] has always been a growing point in my career. When I went to PSG, it was massive for me and then coming back to Lyon was even a bigger jump. I get to play with some of the best international players in the world.”

“It’s not a knock on the NWSL, but you’re just not going and playing in the Champions League,” she continued. “That’s something that I missed out on when I was at Portland because it’s just insane.”

Chelsea manager Emma Hayes is upset with the officiating in her club’s 2-2 draw against Real Madrid on Wednesday.

Controversial decisions “robbed” the English club from a win in its first match of the Champions League group stage, Hayes said. In the second half, two key decisions went against the Blues, with a questionable penalty awarded to Madrid in the 78th minute and a would-be last-minute winner for Chelsea ruled offside.

“I think we’ve been robbed of what should have been a 3-1 game,” said Hayes, who has been named head coach of the U.S. women’s national team.

Video assistant referee (VAR) review was not available. After the match, UEFA released a statement on VAR is being rolled out gradually across its competitions, though it did not provide any timeline for when it might come to the Women’s Champions League group stage.

“UEFA already plans to implement VAR at the UEFA Women’s Nations League finals next year and will continuously evaluate the possibility to implement VAR in competitions or stages of competitions where it hasn’t been so far,” the statement read.

In the fifth and final minute of stoppage time of Wednesday’s draw, Chelsea scored on a close-range goal from Niamh Charles. But the flag was raised for offside, to the confusion of coaches and players alike. While Kerr was in an offside position, it was not in a way that impacted play, Hayes said.

“It’s embarrassing,” Hayes said. “I had to check because Niamh’s onside, but the reason the goal was ruled offside was because Sam [Kerr] was interfering with the goalkeeper.

“[Kerr is] about seven yards away from the goalkeeper, she’s nowhere near her, so I cannot understand the decision whatsoever.”

Following the draw, other players called out the lack of VAR, which isn’t set to be used in Champions League competition until the knockout rounds.

“I think it has to be used in the Champions League from minute one when the group stage starts,” Barcelona winger Caroline Graham Hansen said Thursday. “Every year we are doing things to improve [the game], but it’s clear that it should be utilised in the group phase as well as the knockouts.

“Like [this week], the games are intense, there are a lot of decisive situations and, at the end of the day, I think everyone just wants games to end with the result as it should end. If we can have help, that helps.”

Her teammate Salma Paralluelo echoed the calls for VAR.

“At the end of the day, VAR is a tool that makes things as fair as possible on the pitch because of the support it provides,” Paralluelo said. “Not having it can lead to wrong decisions. We need it both in the league and in the Champions League [group phase]. I think it is super necessary.”

Lindsey Horan is excited about the investment Michele Kang could bring to Olympique Lyonnais.

Kang, who already owns the NWSL’s Washington Spirit, is set to become the majority owner of the Lyon women’s team. In an interview with Pro Soccer Wire, Horan said that she’s met Kang “many times” and called her “amazing.”

“And I think her aspirations and the things that she’s doing in the world are insane,” the Lyon midfielder said. “She’s not just saying things to say them, or to hope that it could happen, she’s going and making them happen. What she’ll do with Lyon is going to be absolutely incredible.”

As she prepares to take control of the club, Kang has been vocal about her goals, which include building the women’s team its own training center. Kang also is exploring the possibility of repurposing a local rugby venue as the team’s home stadium.

Not many women’s teams have their own training facilities or their own stadiums. The NWSL’s Kansas City Current opened their own training complex in 2022, and they are in the process of building the first women’s soccer-specific stadium.

“Our team isn’t just attached to the men’s team,” Horan told Pro Soccer Wire. “Our team is in itself its own. To see some of these teams around the world now having their own training facilities, having their own stadiums — that’s what they deserve.

“We women work just as hard and we’re professionals just as much as the men. So at least we should have our own training facility. We should have all access to the things that we need, that I’m pretty sure most men’s clubs get, and to have our own stadium would be incredible as well.”

Lyon is set to kick off the UEFA Champions League group stage at 3 p.m. ET Tuesday. The six-match group stage runs through the end of January, with 16 teams divided into four groups. Lyon is in Group B with Austria’s St. Pölten, Norway’s SK Brann and the Czech Republic’s SK Slavia Prague.

Esther González always dreamt of playing in the United States. Now, she’s not only made that dream come true, but she’s also a NWSL champion.

González signed with Gotham FC after winning the 2023 World Cup with Spain. And since then, the 30-year-old forward has helped the team to its first NWSL championship, scoring the title-winning goal on a header in Saturday’s final.

She predicted the goal to Spanish outlet AS ahead of the championship game.

“Yes always,” she said in Spanish when asked if she saw herself scoring in the final. “In my head, I only want to score goals, whatever the match, in training. Of course I see myself scoring in the final. I know I’m going to have a chance, I just have to make it.”

González has settled in well to the NWSL, becoming just the second player since 2015 to score a brace in one of her first two league appearances.

She also knows that she is in a league “where I can bring out my maximum potential,” and following the game she told Marta Griñan of AS that the level of competition in the NWSL is much higher than in La Liga.

“One of the biggest differences with the Spanish league, which is a great league, is that here (in the NWSL) all the games, absolutely all of them, are like a Champions League game at the highest level,” she said. “In Spain, there are some games that you can win four or five to zero, that your physical wear and tear is normal, that you have everything under control.

“Here every game is like playing against Barça, which is the best team in the Spanish League: Your level has to be the maximum, your physical demand is the maximum, and that happens weekend after weekend.”

After conceding two goals in the first half of Saturday’s Women’s Champions League final, Barcelona staged a massive comeback in the second half to defeat VfL Wolfsburg, 3-2, and claim its second Champions League title in three years.

Wolfsburg entered Saturday’s match at Philips Stadion in Eindhoven, Netherlands, as the clear underdog, but the German team didn’t look it once the whistle sounded. In the third minute, Ewa Pajor picked the ball off the foot of Barcelona’s Lucy Bronze, blasting it past goalkeeper Sandra Paños. Wolfsburg then made it 2-0 in the 37th minute with a goal from Alexandra Popp.

The first half had many Barcelona fans thinking back to last year’s Champions League final, when their team conceded three goals to Lyon in the first 33 minutes of the match and wasn’t able to turn things around.

But Barcelona extinguished those comparisons as soon as the second half began. Patri Guijarro scored two goals in two minutes and Fridolina Rolfo added the game-winner in the 70th minute. (Video highlights are embedded below.)

Saturday also saw yet another women’s soccer attendance record broken. With 33,147 fans, it was the best attended women’s soccer match ever in the Netherlands.

Lindsey Horan will remain with Olympique Lyonnais even after her loan from the Portland Thorns expires.

The U.S. women’s national team midfielder joined Lyon in January 2022 after six seasons with Portland in the NWSL. Her contract with the Thorns runs through 2025, while her loan spell is set to expire in June.

While the two sides are still ironing out the details, Horan is expected to stay with the French club following the conclusion of her loan, Lyon manager Sonia Bompastor said Tuesday. It remains unclear what that will look like, whether an extension of her loan or a full transfer to the French club.

Prior to joining the Thorns, the Colorado native spent four years with Paris Saint-Germain. She then returned to the United States, making 87 appearances for the Thorns and scoring 25 goals.

She has made 32 appearances for Lyon in the Champions League and in Division 1 Feminine while on loan, notching seven goals.

The UEFA Women’s Champions League on June 3 will pit two of the game’s brightest stars against one another in Barcelona’s Alexia Putellas and Wolfsburg’s Alexandra Popp.

Both made returns for their respective clubs in the last few days. Popp had missed several matches with an Achilles injury but came back to score for Wolfsburg in her team’s 3-2 win against Arsenal in Monday’s Champions League semifinal.

Putellas made her first appearance since tearing her ACL last July in Barca’s 3-0 win over Sporting Huelva, which clinched their fourth straight Liga F title. Her team already had clinched its spot in the Champions League final.

So what can fans expect from the title matchup?

When did these teams last play one another?

Barcelona and Wolfsburg last faced each other during the 2021-22 Champions League semifinals. Putellas and Barcelona won 5-3 on aggregate but lost to Olympique Lyonnais in the final.

Wolfsburg have made six Champions League final appearances, with their most recent coming in 2020. Only Lyon have made more appearances in the final, which makes this familiar territory for the German club. But Wolfsburg haven’t won the Champions League since 2014.

Barcelona, meanwhile, won the UWCL just two seasons ago, beating out English club Chelsea for the title in 2021.

Who are the players to watch for each side?

While Popp and Putellas will be in sharper form by the June final, several other players also should feature heavily in this matchup.

Asisat Oshoala has been dominant for Barcelona this season, leading the team with 20 goals through 24 matches – a suitable follow-up to last season, when she led the team with 20 goals through 19 matches.

Midfielder Aitana Bonmati has helped to fill the hole left by Putellas, providing goal-scoring, playmaking and leadership inside the middle third. She’s leading the Champions League in assists, with seven through UWCL competition.

Popp has led Wolfsburg in scoring, with 14 goals through 17 matches despite missing several weeks due to injury. She’s followed by Ewa Pajor, who has 11 goals in 16 matches as well as seven assists. She ties Popp for a team-high 18 points.

Pajor has been the top scorer in Champions League competition, notching eight goals so far.