Arsenal Women have been drawn to play BK Hacken of Sweden in a two legged playoff round to determine who goes into the UWCL group stages. The first leg will be played in Gothenburg on either the 18 or 19 September with the second leg at Meadow Park on 25 or 26 September.
Hacken is the former club of Gunners striker Stina Blackstenius and summer signing Rosa Kafaji. The second leg will be played at Boreham Wood given the short turnaround time for ticket sales and because the men’s team have a League Cup tie against Bolton Wanderers on 25 September.
The full draw for the playoff round is below:
League Path
Sporting CP v Real Madrid
Juventus v Paris Saint-Germain
Paris FC v Manchester City
Fiorentina v Wolfsburg
BK Hacken v Arsenal
Champions Path
SKN St Polten v ZNK Mura
Benfica v Hammarby
ZNK Osijek v FC Twente
Galatasaray v Slavia Praha
AS Roma v Servette
Anderlecht v Valerenga
FC Vorskla Poltava v Celtic
In case you missed it, last week we put together an explainer for the UWCL qualifying process and why it is as it is, which you can read here.
Glad to have avoided Juventus!
Btw, Man City getting dumped out at this stage for the 3rd time in a row would be delicious. Even though I have a bit of a personal vendetta against Paris FC (no, I promise, I am over *THAT* time,) I will be cheering them on regardless.
Yes it would be enjoyable but I would prefer they won through before getting dumped out in the group stage. Otherwise they would then be able to focus on the league more and be a bigger threat there. If they qualify for the CL their pretty thin squad will be stretched. Additionally, we need to boost England’s CL co-efficiency so we get the best qualifying for our teams (naturally for Citeh and Chelsea after we’ve won the league (ahem!)).
Now that you laid it out like this, I buy the sentiment!
Rat cunning. I like it.
This might be trickier than most will expect. First leg on plastic pitch is not ideal. I would have preferred to avoid Häcken. They have strengthened their team quite smart this summer. On the positive side I will likely be able to watch Arsenal Women live for the first time.
They had a good CL run last year, and although they’ve lost some decent players it’s interesting you say they’ve replaced some of them. And a plastic pitch against a team already in the middle of their season means it’s going to be a difficult match.
Arsenal are of course clear favorites and hopefully there will be lots of Swedish gooners supporting the team. Häcken have added depth in both attack and defense which can make them slightly more unpredictable but Kafaji is a huge loss for them. Left back Anna Sandberg went to United but Japanese international Kitagawa is replacing her and is probably an upgrade.
If both English clubs qualify, the coefficient will improve and be important for the next CL. With the new format, second place qualifies directly. That’s what I understand. City will easily get past Paris FC, because they’ve had a good season. However, there will be 4 very close and important CL and WSL games. Whoever has a deep squad can do well, and different players can be used for both matches.
I believe in Arsenal in this game against Hacken, the players have a new attitude, I’m enjoying seeing it, it won’t be easy, but I believe in the result we’ll get, it won’t be easy, it will have to be well managed and two teams will be made for both games that are very close. Everything is going well, everything is going well.
Only runners up from the top two leagues qualify directly next season, even though the gap in UEFA’s ranking is closing up, WSL sided would need really strong performances in the completion proper to overhaul both Spain and Germany next season. Also, not sure where the confidence in City easily getting past Paris FC comes from. Yes, City are probably favourites, but I hardly see them rolling over the third best team in France (who knocked the finalist and semi finalist out last season, and were a shootout away from the French league final)
I believe that City will get through this phase, because the English teams had a good pre-season, Paris FC is not as good as people imagine, Arsenal lost the game by minor details (World Cup, tiredness and no proper rest, and without a proper pre-season), now one observation is that Bunny Shaw seems to be in a goal drought and I don’t see Miedema playing as much, and Gareth Taylor hasn’t changed his way of playing, just like Arsenal and Chelsea have changed their style to be unpredictable this season.
But Paris FC beat Wolfsburg too and they are no mugs. They didn’t even need to go to penalties to do it!
Really? If City doesn’t get past this stage, I see Paris FC winning Division 1.
I don’t know if I’m right in my observation, but everything could go wrong for City due to the lack of depth in their squad, as they will play 4 games very close to each other, CL and WSL
Somehow I knew we’d get BK Hacken. Shame about the plastic pitch but we should have too much for them. It’ll be a nice trip down Memory Lane for Stina and Rosa.
We ought to start Stina and Rosa as they are used to the pitch and the opposition. Put the match out of sight in the first leg to make the Meadow Park game a formality!
……and in reverse, for Ruby Grant. Our youngest first team hat-trick scorer in the WSL era.
I hadn’t realised that she was now playing for
Hacken. I was there at that field in Crawley where she scored the hatrick!
Goodness me! Great spot.
I wouldn’t worry. After the Rosenborg game, fate owes us about a dozen goals!!
Has anyone measured the thickness of the bar that we kept hitting in the last game? I’m certain it’s twice as wide as it should be! 🙂