The Champions League is back this week for the first day of the group stage. This season, 11 players from the Sud Ladies Cup will play in the competition.
Who will succeed to FC Barcelona ? Can Lyon take back the throne they have held since 2016? Can Paris Saint-Germain reach the final for the third time? These are just some of the big questions in the 2021-2022 Women's Champions League, which opens this week with the first day of the group stage.
The constitution of the four groups already promises some very high-level clashes. In group A, Chelsea, Wolfsburg and Juventus will face each other in what is already looking like the group of death. Frenchwoman Annahita Zamanian, who played in the Sud Ladies Cup 2018 and is now playing for Turin, will have a hard task to achieve if she wants to qualify for the next round.
With Real Madrid, Breidablik (Iceland) and Zhytlobud-1 (Ukraine), Paris Saint-Germain have inherited a group B much easier. Baltimore, De Almeida, Katoto and Khelifi can look forward to qualification with confidence, but they will still have to be serious against lesser teams.
Germany's Jana Feldkamp and Sarai Linder, who played in the Sud Ladies Cup 2018 and are now at Hoffenheim, will have to overcome Arsenal in Group C.
Finally, in group D, Lyon's Selma Bacha and Emelyne Laurent will have two strong opponents with Klara Bühl and Janina Leitzig's Bayern Munich and Portuguese side Benfica.
GROUP A
Juventus : Annahita Zamanian
GROUP B
Paris-SG : Elisa de Almeida, Sandy Baltimore, Léa Khelifi, Marie-Antoinette Katoto
GROUP C
Hoffenheim : Jana Feldkamp, Sarai Linder
GROUP D
Bayern Munchen : Janina Leitzig, Klara Bühl
Olympique Lyonnais : Selma Bacha, Emelyne Laurent