Matchday One of the 2023-24 Women’s Champions League group stage is over and there were some shocks among the standard big wins for the likes of Barcelona (5-0 vs. Benfica) and Lyon (9-0 vs. Slavia Praha).
It was a bad time for Parisian clubs, as Paris Saint-Germain lost 2-0 to Ajax and Paris FC fell 2-1 to Swedish side BK Häcken, while Norway’s SK Brann picked up an important 2-1 win over Austria’s St. Pölten. Germany’s Eintracht Frankfurt also overcame Sweden’s Rosengård 2-1, and Bayern Munich were held to a 2-2 draw against Roma. But it was a controversial 2-2 draw between Chelsea and Real Madrid that set pulses racing as the lack of VAR came back to bite the Blues.
We asked our writers Sophie Lawson, Sam Marsden and Julien Laurens to answer some of our burning questions.
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1. What caught your eye from the first matchday of the group stage?
Sam Marsden: There were some great stories across the opening round of fixtures. It was a tough week for the Paris teams, who were on the wrong side of the two biggest surprises: Ajax beating Paris Saint-Germain and Häcken winning away at Paris FC. As a result of that…
