The third Champions League game week wrapped up without any big surprises — again — as Lyon, Chelsea, Bayern Munich and Manchester City maintained their first place within the groups.
All four groups have the same points scoring with teams having won three, two, one or zero games respectively. It reflects how sorely the competition is ready for a change, with the gap between top and bottom seeds having failed to narrow in the four years since it was introduced.
Despite a league system being introduced to the men’s Champions League this season, the women’s competition will not shift to the same format until next year. The men’s version may have lacked jeopardy but the variety of opponents that teams can face has boosted teams such as Celtic and Brest early in the competition.
That kind of shift is desperately required within the women’s competition where it is painfully obvious from the draw who will make it to the quarter-finals. The lopsided results from this gameweek only emphasise this: six of the eight fixtures were won by three or more goals. Regardless of how well the league phase works out for the men’s competition, the opportunity to play a wider variety of teams will be a much-needed boost for the women’s game.
