Four reasons why Chelsea are best-placed English team to win Women’s Champions League

European title was the one trophy to elude Emma Hayes during her 12-year reign – but her successor could finally lead Chelsea to glory

For the first time since the new Women’s Champions League format began in 2021, there are three English teams competing for a place in the quarter-finals.
Chelsea qualified automatically for the European competition after winning the Women’s Super League last season while Arsenal and Manchester City, who finished second and third in the league, made it through the Champions League qualifiers.
Of the three English teams, who has the best chance to lift the trophy? Telegraph Sport explains why this could be the year that Chelsea finally win the competition – and become the first English side to do so since Arsenal in 2007.
When Emma Hayes left Chelsea over the summer after almost 12 years in charge, she was replaced by Sonia Bompastor, whose CV includes being the first woman to win the Champions League as a player and manager, both with Lyon.
It might just be Bompastor’s success at football’s highest level that finally pushes Chelsea one step further in Europe. In the past two seasons, they crashed out in the semi-finals and in 2021 they made it to the final, but fell to a crushing 4-0 defeat by Barcelona.
Bompastor captained Lyon to back-to-back triumphs in the Champions League in 2011 and 2012, and won the competition as their head coach in 2022. The experience gained from her European successes – as well as eight Division 1 Féminine titles as a player and three as a manager – might just be what Chelsea needs to finally overcome that final hurdle.
Camille Abily also joined Chelsea from Lyon this summer as an assistant. She worked at the French club for five years in the same role, many of those alongside Bompastor, and assisted her in the 2021 Champions League win. As a player, Abily won five Champions League titles so she knows what it takes to lift the trophy too.
Along with the arrival of Bompastor, Lucy Bronze returned to English football in the summer. During her three-year spell at Lyon from 2017, she won three Champions League titles, and she added two more to her honours list during her time at Barcelona.
The defender is a serial winner and has made clear her ambitions to push Chelsea towards the European title. Speaking before the season, she said: “Chelsea have got that winning mentality. They’ve got that experience of beating Barcelona and Lyon, and being in a Champions League final.
“But sometimes it’s not just talent that you need. Those last bits: the know-how of winning the final, being ready and focused, having clear minds going into that final – Sonia, myself and Camille can add that to Chelsea and push this team over the line because the talent’s there.”
Chelsea’s group-stage draw should be manageable for the experienced team as they face Real Madrid, Twente and Celtic over the next two months – with the two top teams progressing to the quarter-finals.
Chelsea’s biggest challenge will come with their familiar rivals, Real Madrid. However, recent history is on the London club’s side. The two teams have faced each other in the group stages in the last two seasons of the Champions League, with the results being two draws and two wins in Chelsea’s favour.
Although Celtic and Twente are not to be underestimated, Chelsea’s record and history suggests that these are two teams the London club can deal with. Chelsea and Real Madrid are the favourites to progress to the quarter-finals.
Hayes left an impressive legacy, which included 14 major trophies and five successive WSL wins. She is widely regarded as one of the game’s most influential coaches and her departure led to uncertainty around how Chelsea would cope without their long-term leader.
Yet beyond the trophies, Hayes’s legacy stretches to the recruitment and youth development structures she helped shape at the club, which has put them in strong stead for years to come. And Chelsea’s start to the new WSL campaign under Bompastor suggests the team have simply picked up from where they left off under their former boss.
During pre-season, they beat rivals Arsenal 1-0 and brushed aside international competitors including Gotham FC and Feyenoord. With a game in hand, they currently sit second in the WSL table after a 1-0 win against Aston Villa and a 7-0 thrashing of Crystal Palace.
The first goal of the 2024-25 #BarclaysWSL season 🤩What a strike from @ChelseaFCW’s Johanna Rytting Kaneryd 🙌You can watch all the highlights from Chelsea 🆚 Aston Villa now on YouTube 👇https://t.co/I2wGnvSLmV pic.twitter.com/aZLtB5fIWR
Arsenal forward Beth Mead said being in the competition was a “minimum standard” for the club and the pressure is on manager Jonas Eidevall to lead a strong European campaign this season. However their group stage draw is the trickiest of the three English clubs as they face Bayern Munich, Juventus and Valerenga.
Given the backing Eidevall has received, including a strong summer transfer window in which they signed Barcelona’s Mariona Caldentey who has won the European competition three times, expectations are high for the team to progress.
This will be City’s first time in the group stages since the format was changed in 2021 and a tricky draw awaits as they face defending champions Barcelona.
City’s home tie against the Catalan club on Wednesday could see Keira Walsh and Ellie Roebuck face their former club, along with Ballon d’Or winner Aitana Bonmati and experienced captain Alexia Putellas.
It will be a tricky tie, but Gareth Taylor’s side have had an impressive start to the season after batting aside Paris FC in the qualifiers 8-0 on aggregate and enjoying an unbeaten run in the WSL.
It seems very likely City will progress to the quarter-finals, but their lack of experience beyond that level could be their downfall.