Defending champions Barcelona got a kind-looking draw but a Chelsea side desperate for success face a trickier assignment
Barcelona, Rosengård, Benfica, Eintracht Frankfurt: There is a lot of familiarity between these teams, this being almost a rerun of last season’s Group D, where Barcelona were drawn against Bayern Munich, Rosengård and Benfica. The draw has been even kinder to the reigning champions this time. Barcelona beat Benfica 15-2 across their two matches last season and Rosengård 10-1. Bayern delivered the upset, beating the Spanish champions 3-1 after they had lost the away game 3-0. Eintracht are unlikely to pose anywhere near that level of threat, though they are one of only three former winners left in the tournament; the German side are ninth in the Frauen Bundesliga with one win from four games. Rosengård’s hopes of defending their Damallsvenskan title are over, the club seventh with three games to play. Their only chance of qualification for next season is to win the competition, a task made harder by the delayed start to the group stage as a result of the women’s World Cup having been pushed back to allow more time between the men’s tournament in Qatar and the women’s. The groups kick off on the weekend of 14-15 November, days after the end of the Damallsvenskan season. That could give Benfica, the 1a Divisão leaders, the edge when it comes to who will finish second.
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