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Football News Update: Rangers Drawn Against Arsenal in Women’s Champions League Qualification
In the first step towards qualification for the group stage of next season’s UEFA Women’s Champions League, Scottish champions Rangers have been drawn against English giants Arsenal.
The winners of this one-off tie will face either Spanish club Atletico Madrid or Norwegian side Rosenborg BK in order to progress to the next stage of the competition.
Meanwhile, SWPL champions Celtic will take on Finnish side KuPS in their ‘champions path’ semi-final, with the winners set to play the victors of the FC Gintra v Agarista tie to determine who moves on.
The semi-finals are scheduled for September 4th, with the final following three days later. All matches will be staged at a single venue per group.
In other news, Manchester City, who finished as runners-up in the WSL last season, will enter qualification in round two, while reigning English champions Chelsea go straight into the group stage.
Arsenal, who finished third in the Women’s Super League last season, are one of the clubs that Rangers manager Jo Potter played for during her career.
This will be Rangers’ second experience of European football, having played in the qualifying rounds in the 2022-23 season, where they were edged out in the play-off stage against Benfica.
Round one is divided into two paths: the ‘champions path’, which has 11 groups and includes Celtic, and the ‘league path’, where Arsenal and Rangers feature.
Round one has two stages, effectively making it a mini-tournament, before some of the biggest names in the women’s game enter in round two.
In the past, Arsenal have faced Scottish opposition in the Women’s Champions League, securing a 6-2 aggregate win against Glasgow City in 2013. Meanwhile, Glasgow City lost 4-0 over two legs against Chelsea in 2015 in another Anglo-Scottish tie.
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