The 2024/25 Champions League quarterfinals are officially set, with UEFA drawing the remaining eight teams into the field early Friday morning.
The annual season-long competition pits Europe's top leagues against each other. This season, 72 clubs across 50 different leagues qualified for the contest. From the UK to Ukraine, all teams have been vying for the continent's top-dog status amidst a cutthroat atmosphere and a growing sense of parity in the sport.
Two qualifying rounds narrowed the initial teams down to the 16 contending in the tournament's official group stage. Each played six group-stage matches from October through December to determine the eight clubs that advanced to Friday's final draw.
The road to Champions League glory in Lisbon
All remaining clubs are now eyeing the May 24th final in Lisbon, Portugal, and Friday's draw mapped each team's path to that championship match. The 2024/25 quarterfinals will feature four former champions and four seeking a first-ever trophy, with both familiar fights and rarely tested toss-ups on deck.
Both the March quarterfinals and April semifinals employ a two-leg format, offering teams who suffer narrow first losses a shot at second-match redemption.
Friday's draw determined that WSL contenders Arsenal will kick off the tournament's quarterfinals against Real Madrid on March 18th, with Germany's Bayern Munich taking on France's 2024 UWCL runners-up Olympique Lyonnais shortly afterwards.
The following day, Bayern's Frauen-Bundesliga foes Wolfsburg will face Spain's 2024 UWCL champs FC Barcelona. Closing out the initial tilts is a WSL standoff between Manchester City and the UK league's undefeated titans Chelsea FC.
Increased global parity to test UWCL dynasties
With eight of the tournament's 23 titles under their belts, Lyon is the winningest team in UWCL history. Meanwhile, current back-to-back champions Barcelona claimed three of the last four trophies.
Despite the recent two-team domination, capturing this season's title will be a challenge. Hoping to spoil Lyon's and Barcelona's dynastic runs is four first-time title-hunters, plus two-time winners Wolfsburg and early champion Arsenal — who won the trophy in 2007, when the tournament was called the UEFA Women's Cup.
All in all, the European crown has never been tougher to claim, with leagues across the continent increasingly stocking up on standout — and potentially game-changing — players from beyond their borders.
Spanning 72 teams from 50 European leagues, the deepest Champions League tournament in UEFA history starts tomorrow with clubs from the UK to Georgia eyeing Lisbon's late-May final.
Four teams gained automatic entry to October's 16-team group stage — defending UEFA champs FC Barcelona and runners-up Lyon, plus top German finishers FC Bayern and WSL title-holders Chelsea — with this month's qualifiers determining the remaining 12.
The road to the Champions League group stage
There are two qualifying rounds played concurrently between two sets of teams: The champions path matches up winners from each non-automatically qualified league, while the league path does the same with second- and third-place finishers.
Each path opens with a series of four-team, single-elimination mini-tournaments, in which 59 clubs will enter Wednesday's semifinals with just 15 moving on from Saturday's finals.
Those 15 will join runners-up from top leagues France, Germany, Spain, England, Italy, and Sweden for Round 2 later this month, all vying for a spot in group stage play.
Top European clubs battle for Champions League glory
Set to square off against Denmark's FC Nordsjælland tomorrow, Portuguese powerhouse SL Benfica has made the group stage every year since the 2021-22 season.
WSL favorites Arsenal saw their 16-season UWCL quarterfinal streak snapped by Paris FC last year, so they'll be hungry for redemption when they face Scotland’s Rangers FC tomorrow. If victorious, they'll be set to face the winner of tomorrow's match between 2024 Women's Cup runners-up Atlético de Madrid and Norway's Rosenborg on Saturday.
Also brewing tomorrow is a battle of the underdogs between Finnish side KuPS Kuopio and Scottish third-place finishers Celtic.
How to watch UEFA Champions League matches
Champions League action kicks off tomorrow at 5 AM ET, with live streaming coverage exclusively on DAZN.
Barcelona was crowned champion of the Champions League on Saturday with a 2-0 win over Lyon in Bilbao.
Alexia "La Reina" Putellas, who recently re-signed with Barcelona, came off the bench to score the team's second goal. Fellow Ballon d’Or winner Aitana Bonmatí provided the team’s first. After the game, defender Lucy Bronze said Putellas was nicknamed "the queen" for a reason.
"Alexia is the captain of the team and she's the queen of Barcelona for a reason," defender Lucy Bronze told DAZN. "She's got the quality to do that in the last minute of the Champions League final when we were up against it at the end and it just sealed the win for us. It was amazing."
The victory marked Barcelona's first win over Lyon in a UWCL final, having previously gone up against the French side at both the 2019 and 2022 Champions League finals. It's also Barcelona's second Champions League title in a row.
"It's hard to win it once, but to do it back-to-back, Lyon showed how difficult it is and this team has finally done that," Bronze said. "I think we go down in history as one of the best teams in Europe."
This season, the team also secured a quadruple for the first time in club history, having already won Liga F, the Copa de la Reina, and the Spanish Supercopa. The win ensures that coach Jonatan Giráldez — who has officially departed the team to join the NWSL's Washington Spirit — leaves Europe a champion.
"It was an incredible game. I am really happy, it's one of the best days of my life for sure," Giráldez told broadcaster DAZN after the game. "We did an amazing job. I am very proud of all of them."
Following the win, Putellas said her team "can't ask for anything else."
"Our objective was to win four out of four," the Spain international told reporters. "We have achieved everything we wanted. Every minute of sacrifice has been worth the effort — and I'd say that not after the game, but before, just entering in the stadium, with all the support we had here, it was worth it."
2024 Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year Aitana Bonmatí said that the crowd support made it "feel like Camp Nou."
"I am on cloud nine right now," she said. "It is an historic day which we will remember forever."
The UEFA Women's Champions League final kicks off in Bilbao on Saturday, with a couple of familiar foes set to face off for the trophy.
Olympique Lyonnais Féminin, making its 11th final appearance since 2010, will go head to head with a Barcelona side making its fourth final appearance in a row.
This will be the third time these two teams meet in the UWCL title game, having previously appeared in the 2019 and 2022 finals. Lyon won both of those prior games against Barcelona, alongside a total of eight Champions League trophies. That’s double that of any other club, with Eintracht Frankfurt coming in a distant second with four.
Should Barcelona win, this would be the team's third title — breaking a tie for the third in the UWCL total titles race.
But as these teams return to the UWCL final, it also marks the end of an era for both clubs. The game will be the last for both club managers, as Barcelona’s Jonatan Giráldez and Lyon’s Sonia Bompastor depart for new jobs after the season's end.
Giráldez is set to leave for the NWSL's Washington Spirit, while Bompastor will take over for incoming USWNT coach Emma Hayes at Chelsea. Both coaches have earned one UWCL trophy during their tenures, while Bompastor also brought two Champions League trophies to Lyon as a player. She was the first coach to win a UWCL trophy as both a coach and player.
This season, Barcelona is looking for its first quadruple, having won a fifth Liga F title alongside the Copa de La Reina, and the Spanish Supercopa.
"We hope he can go out with the four trophies because we know how competitive and ambitious he is," Barcelona midfielder Patri Guijarro told ESPN. "It has been a winning era with him in charge and for him to go out with all four trophies would be historic and incredible."
But Lyon's Damaris Egurrola is excited about her team's chances of overcoming Barcelona once again — and to do it in front of family and friends.
"Lyon have something special," she told Forbes ahead of the weekend's final. "We have a great team and we have the players with enough talent to win any match."
The game will be a homecoming for Egurrola, who began her professional career with Athletic Bilbao.
"I’ve been thinking of this day and night," she said. "I’ve been dreaming of playing this match. Having the opportunity to play in San Mames is amazing. This is where it all started for me."
The UEFA Women's Champions League final kicks off Saturday, May 25th at 12 PM ET and is free to stream on DAZN.
Alexia Putellas has re-signed with FC Barcelona on a new two-year deal that will run through 2026. The agreement includes an option for a one-year extension.
The two-time Ballon d’Or winner has been with Barcelona for 12 years, and her previous contract was set to expire next month. However, she’s spent the better part of the last two seasons battling injuries, starting with an ACL tear that kept her out of the 2022 UEFA European Women's Football Championship and limited her participation in Spain’s FIFA Women's World Cup win last summer.
Putellas returned in March from her latest injury setback, making 25 appearances across all competitions for Barcelona this season and scoring 10 goals.
In total, the midfielder has made 400 appearances for Barcelona. Among her 20 major trophies with the club include eight Liga F titles and two UEFA Champions League titles — including helping the team to its first European trophy in 2021.
She then won the Ballon d’Or in back-to-back seasons in 2021 and 2022.
Putellas could add a third Champions League trophy next weekend, when Barcelona faces familiar foe Lyon, a team they’ve lost to in two previous Champions League finals. Should they secure the UWCL, they would win the quadruple for the first time, having already won Liga F, the Copa de la Reina, and the Spanish Supercopa.
The first leg of the UEFA Women’s Champions League quarter finals featured a number of strong performances from U.S. players, including Catarina Macario and Lindsey Horan.
Horan had an assist in the game-winning goal for Lyon, securing the team’s 2-1 comeback over Benfica.
In her first Champions League game since the 2022 final, in which she tore her ACL while playing for Lyon, Macario notched an assist as a late-game sub in Chelsea’s 3-1 over Ajax. She’s now had three goal contributions in four appearances in her return to the field.
All three of her contributions have come within 10 minutes of being subbed onto the field.
“She’s gifted,” Chelsea manager Emma Hayes said after the match. But the team is still working her back to full minutes.
“Cat, we’re building, building, building,” Hayes added. “With the way we build players, it’s not just 20 minutes, 30, 45, 60, 90,” she said. “Sometimes it’s 20 at a certain level, and 20 again, but it’s a higher intensity. And Arsenal, for me, even 20 minutes was a much higher intensity. I think tonight was of equal level purely because [it’s] the Champions League and the energy of the crowd, but you saw the quality of the cross.”
Even still, it might not be long before Macario is back to being in a starting lineup.
“Cat is someone who is not 100 per cent yet, but she’s not far away from starting a game,” Hayes said. “People just think, ‘Oh, she’s over that injury,’ but then you start training and then your muscles are having to adapt, and you might get a little tightness in your hamstring and in your groin, and you might have to take the loading off again, and then you have to develop a resilience and a robustness in your body.”
Macario appears to have a sense of humor about it. Hayes is set to take over as the USWNT manager, and Macario is one of many looking to be considered for an Olympic spot this summer. Ahead of the match, Hayes said that Macario had added herself to a form for Olympic roster consideration, noting that she’d written, “Now all you have to do is pick me!”
For Hayes, the thinking is more on the future that Macario could have as a player.
“I want to build Cat for the long term,” Hayes said. “That’s my most important thing for her. She deserves to have a career at the top level.”