We’ll soon discover which teams we’ll face to kick off our UEFA Women’s Champions League journey once again.
The 2024/25 UWCL qualifying draw takes place at 12pm (UK) on July 5 at UEFA’s headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland. It will be streamed live on UEFA.com.
Here is everything you need to know about this year’s competition, and who we could face over the next few months.
How does UWCL qualifying work?
Following our third-place finish in last season’s Barclays Women’s Super League, our Gunners will have to qualify for the tournament via the league path.
The 16 teams in the league path are split into two pots via the UEFA coefficient: Pot 1 (seeded) and Pot 2 (unseeded). We have been designated as a Pot 1 team.
Round 1 of league path qualifying consists of four mini-tournaments between four teams, the location of which will be announced after Friday’s draw. Each mini-tournament will hold two Pot 1 teams and two Pot 2 teams.
Should we win the mini-tournament, our side will progress to Round 2: a knockout qualifier across two legs. A total of five teams from the league path will qualify for the UWCL group stage.
Key dates
Round 1 (mini-tournament)
Semi-finals: September 4
Final/third-place play-off: September 7
Round 2 draw
September 9
Round 2 (two-leg knockout)
First leg: September 18/19
Second leg: September 25/26
Who might we face in qualifying?
For the round 1 semi-final, we’ll face one of the following Pot 2 sides: Breidablik, Fiorentina, Rosenborg, Sporting CP, Linkoping, Rangers, First Vienna, FC Kolos Kovalivka.
If successful, we’ll go head-to-head with the winner of the other semi-final for a place in Round 2 of qualifying.
Our opponent could either be from Pot 2 or a fellow Pot 1 team, which includes Atletico de Madrid, Paris FC, Sparta Praha, Eintracht Frankfurt, Ajax, Brondby IF, FC Minsk.
The four winners of the league path mini-tournaments will then be joined by Paris Saint-Germain, Wolfsburg, Real Madrid, Manchester City, Juventus and Hacken.
Another draw will take place on September 9 to determine the Round 2 match-ups.
What does the rest of the tournament look like?
Five qualifying teams from the league path and seven qualifying teams from the champions path will then join FC Barcelona, Olympique Lyonnais, Bayern Munich and Chelsea in the UWCL group stages.
The four groups will be determined by a draw on September 27.
Matchday 1: October 8/9
Matchday 2: October 16/17
Matchday 3: November 12/13
Matchday 4: November 20/21
Matchday 5: December 11/12
Matchday 6: December 17/18
The top two teams in each group will progress to the quarter-final stage. After the group stages conclude on December 17/18, a draw for the quarter and semi-finals will take place on February 7.
Quarter-finals
First leg: March 18/19
Second leg: March 26/27
Semi-finals
First leg: April 19/20
Second leg: April 26/27
Final (Estadio Jose Alvalade, Lisbon)
May 23/24/25 TBC
The winners of the 2024/25 UEFA Women’s Champions League will automatically qualify for the 2025/26 UEFA Women’s Champions League group stage.
Copyright 2024 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.
Olivia Martin is a dedicated sports journalist based in the UK. With a passion for various athletic disciplines, she covers everything from major league championships to local sports events, delivering up-to-the-minute updates and in-depth analysis.
