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Man Utd are breaking new ground in the UWCL but refuse to just make up the numbers

Man Utd are breaking new ground in the UWCL but refuse to just make up the numbers

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Manchester United begin their first ever foray into the Women’s Champions League proper with the matchday one visit of Norway’s Vålerenga this week.

By Jamie Spencer

“I don’t want us to go and just experience the Champions League,” Marc Skinner had said, five days before Manchester United’s opening league phase fixture at home against Vålerenga.

Moments earlier, United saw out a real statement WSL performance against Chelsea. The game finished 1-1, yet there was still a sense of major progress from Skinner’s side, whose only win in 16 previous games against the perennial domestic champions was a self-admitted FA Cup smash and grab two seasons before. This time, the Red Devils took the game to Chelsea and never once looked inferior. With more clinical finishing, it might have been three points instead of one, and perhaps the ultimate compliment was opposing manager Sonia Bompastor calling the draw “not a bad result”.

The timing couldn’t be better. At last competing on more of an even keel than ever before with the club that has reached the Champions League semi-finals or better in six of the last eight years is big, just as United prepare to embark on their own maiden European adventure.

The Champions League is the standard bearer and yardstick like no other.

For Skinner and United, getting to that promised land has been the goal all along, finally achieved after navigating two qualifying rounds and successfully seeing off PSV Eindhoven, Hammarby and Brann across four games by an overall cumulative 8-1 scoreline. 

It hasn’t been the smoothest of rides, agonisingly missing out two years ago in a third qualifying round defeat to two-time finalists Paris Saint-Germain, after which came the club’s worst WSL finish (5th in 2023/24) just 12 months on from their best (2nd in 2022/23). High profile and senior players have left at various junctures, but United rebuilt, in many ways going back to basics by focusing on defensive structure, and came storming back into the WSL’s top three. This past summer was about adding polished quality to that newly solid foundation – Fridolina Rolfö, Julia Zigiotti Olme, Jess Park.

All three have played in the Champions League before, with Rolfö in particular a veteran of the competition with each of her last four clubs, a five-time finalist and two-time winner. The Swede brings a certain class to the left-hand side of the pitch, with Zigiotti a tenacious force in the centre of midfield – arguably a previous weak point, and Park capable of breaking defensive lines at will.

Qualifying for the Champions League may have always been the target, but it was never the end game. Hosting PSG (again), this time at Old Trafford, and record eight-time winners OL Lyonnes in the weeks to come is not viewed as a prize for what has been achieved so far, but another – still early – step in a much longer journey that is far from over.

“Don’t go in eyes wide open,” Skinner urged. “Focused” and “mature” is the instruction.

“I want us to show our maturity that we’ve had over the last four or five seasons together, in [FA] Cup finals. We have to be mature in moments, knowing that referees are different, games are different, different tactics, different nationalities you’re playing against. Don’t be naïve.”

In addition to Vålerenga, PSG and OL Lyonnes at home, United are tasked with European away days against Atlético Madrid, Wolfsburg and Juventus in the quest to finish in the top 12 of 18, in what is a new format for the Women’s Champions League to mirror the men’s 2024 shift to a league phase. The first four get a bye to the quarter-finals, with fifth to 12th contesting a knockout play-off. United will feel confident that avoiding a bottom six finish, especially if this week kicks things off with a win in arguably the most favourable fixture of the lot, is more than doable.

United’s UWCL fixtures

The acid test this season will be how the squad copes with six midweek European matchdays interspersed with the usual WSL commitments between now and Christmas. Depth is what critics have earmarked as a potential issue. In the early weeks of this season, a number of players have suffered fitness problems. Against Liverpool at the end of September, only four outfield players were named on the bench, but that situation has already improved and it was a full quota by the time United faced Chelsea six days later – including Hannah Blundell’s return and Simi Awujo back fit.

Millie Turner could be out until Christmas, which is a blow and does affect centre-back cover, but Leah Galton is the only other player currently sidelined and is nearing fitness.

If United are to successfully juggle WSL and Champions League calendars, making good on their determination to be competitive on both fronts, it can only be a full squad game.

For more than a decade, Manchester United was a name conspicuously absent from the women’s game. During a period of development and growth that laid crucial foundations for the post-2022 explosion we continue to witness, the club didn’t operate a senior side – until reforming in 2018. Now, seven years on and into the Champions League, they feel this is where they are meant to be. The challenge that comes with that is to prove that they are ready to belong.

(Cover image from IMAGO)

For all the best coverage we have on women’s football and all the top games to follow on FotMob each month, please subscribe to our free newsletter – here.

Man Utd are breaking new ground in the UWCL but refuse to just make up the numbers

Manchester United begin their first ever foray into the Women’s Champions League proper with the matchday one visit of Norway’s Vålerenga this week.

By Jamie Spencer

“I don’t want us to go and just experience the Champions League,” Marc Skinner had said, five days before Manchester United’s opening league phase fixture at home against Vålerenga.

Moments earlier, United saw out a real statement WSL performance against Chelsea. The game finished 1-1, yet there was still a sense of major progress from Skinner’s side, whose only win in 16 previous games against the perennial domestic champions was a self-admitted FA Cup smash and grab two seasons before. This time, the Red Devils took the game to Chelsea and never once looked inferior. With more clinical finishing, it might have been three points instead of one, and perhaps the ultimate compliment was opposing manager Sonia Bompastor calling the draw “not a bad result”.

The timing couldn’t be better. At last competing on more of an even keel than ever before with the club that has reached the Champions League semi-finals or better in six of the last eight years is big, just as United prepare to embark on their own maiden European adventure.

The Champions League is the standard bearer and yardstick like no other.

For Skinner and United, getting to that promised land has been the goal all along, finally achieved after navigating two qualifying rounds and successfully seeing off PSV Eindhoven, Hammarby and Brann across four games by an overall cumulative 8-1 scoreline. 

It hasn’t been the smoothest of rides, agonisingly missing out two years ago in a third qualifying round defeat to two-time finalists Paris Saint-Germain, after which came the club’s worst WSL finish (5th in 2023/24) just 12 months on from their best (2nd in 2022/23). High profile and senior players have left at various junctures, but United rebuilt, in many ways going back to basics by focusing on defensive structure, and came storming back into the WSL’s top three. This past summer was about adding polished quality to that newly solid foundation – Fridolina Rolfö, Julia Zigiotti Olme, Jess Park.

All three have played in the Champions League before, with Rolfö in particular a veteran of the competition with each of her last four clubs, a five-time finalist and two-time winner. The Swede brings a certain class to the left-hand side of the pitch, with Zigiotti a tenacious force in the centre of midfield – arguably a previous weak point, and Park capable of breaking defensive lines at will.

Qualifying for the Champions League may have always been the target, but it was never the end game. Hosting PSG (again), this time at Old Trafford, and record eight-time winners OL Lyonnes in the weeks to come is not viewed as a prize for what has been achieved so far, but another – still early – step in a much longer journey that is far from over.

“Don’t go in eyes wide open,” Skinner urged. “Focused” and “mature” is the instruction.

“I want us to show our maturity that we’ve had over the last four or five seasons together, in [FA] Cup finals. We have to be mature in moments, knowing that referees are different, games are different, different tactics, different nationalities you’re playing against. Don’t be naïve.”

In addition to Vålerenga, PSG and OL Lyonnes at home, United are tasked with European away days against Atlético Madrid, Wolfsburg and Juventus in the quest to finish in the top 12 of 18, in what is a new format for the Women’s Champions League to mirror the men’s 2024 shift to a league phase. The first four get a bye to the quarter-finals, with fifth to 12th contesting a knockout play-off. United will feel confident that avoiding a bottom six finish, especially if this week kicks things off with a win in arguably the most favourable fixture of the lot, is more than doable.

United’s UWCL fixtures

The acid test this season will be how the squad copes with six midweek European matchdays interspersed with the usual WSL commitments between now and Christmas. Depth is what critics have earmarked as a potential issue. In the early weeks of this season, a number of players have suffered fitness problems. Against Liverpool at the end of September, only four outfield players were named on the bench, but that situation has already improved and it was a full quota by the time United faced Chelsea six days later – including Hannah Blundell’s return and Simi Awujo back fit.

Millie Turner could be out until Christmas, which is a blow and does affect centre-back cover, but Leah Galton is the only other player currently sidelined and is nearing fitness.

If United are to successfully juggle WSL and Champions League calendars, making good on their determination to be competitive on both fronts, it can only be a full squad game.

For more than a decade, Manchester United was a name conspicuously absent from the women’s game. During a period of development and growth that laid crucial foundations for the post-2022 explosion we continue to witness, the club didn’t operate a senior side – until reforming in 2018. Now, seven years on and into the Champions League, they feel this is where they are meant to be. The challenge that comes with that is to prove that they are ready to belong.

(Cover image from IMAGO)

For all the best coverage we have on women’s football and all the top games to follow on FotMob each month, please subscribe to our free newsletter – here.