On Saturday night, Arsenal will play Paris Saint-Germain in the quarter-finals of the UEFA Women’s Champions League and are looking to pick up where they left off.
The team were performing before the competition was suspended due to Covid-19 and their success in reaching the quarter-finals contrasts with Arsenal men’s side who have not featured in the competition since 2017.
Not only will Arsenal Women be representing the overall Arsenal brand in Europe, but the women’s side are the only English team (men or women) to be left in a European competition. With Manchester United and Manchester City’s men’s teams crashing out of the European competitions over the last few days, it leaves English hopes of a title win with Arsenal Women.
Arsenal were in good form prior to the break, being led by their top goalscorer Vivianne Miedema who is currently on 29 goals for the season, coincidently level with men’s forward Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (with Miedema playing fewer games). Paris Saint-Germain will do well to keep the Dutch star quiet as her form in Europe is outstanding. Miedema already has 10 goals so far in the competition and is in the running for the Golden Boot award should she continue her brilliant goalscoring form.
Away from Miedema, Arsenal have top attacking talent which includes captain Kim Little, Beth Mead, Lisa Evans and Danielle van de Donk among the many players hoping to have a positive impact in this weekend’s important match.
Arsenal are aiming to emulate the run of the 2006/2007 season in which the team won the UEFA Women’s European Cup for the first and only time, becoming the only English team to be crowned European Champions. The last time Arsenal made it to this stage of the competition was in 2012, and the team are hoping to finish the season well after placing third in the Barclays FA Women’s Super League when it was forced to end due to Covid-19.
Much like the men’s UEFA Champions League, the fixtures have been limited to one-off ties to simplify a conclusion. The final rounds are being covered by BT Sport. This means for the first time, the UEFA Women’s Champions League will be brought to British audiences by a mainstream sports service. Fans of Arsenal men, and football in general, will get the chance to see Arsenal Women in the UEFA Women’s Champions League which will hopefully lead to a greater interest in the match, the team and women’s football in general. The fact that the Arsenal match does not clash with both the men’s UEFA Champions League
and the UEFA Europa League fixtures means that the football calendar will be virtually empty this the Saturday. This will increase the possibility of those craving football coverage to tune in to watch women’s football. Arsenal have one of the largest amounts of social media followers of any women’s team, and if this could be translated into viewers for Saturday’s game the exposure of women’s football would reach new highs.
Paris Saint-Germain are a tough side, being runners up in the UEFA Women’s Champions League 2015 and 2017 respectively and coming second to Lyon in the French Division 1 Feminine. With talent including goalkeeper Christiane Endler, Nadia Nadim
and star striker, Marie-Antoinette Katoto, Paris Saint-Germain have had a very strong season and the match against Arsenal will be well contested. It is thought that the game could be a fast-paced affair with both sides boasting strong attacking options.
Much like Arsenal who will draw in new fans, Paris Saint-Germain will do the same with viewers recognising the successes of their men’s side and tuning in to see if the women can follow their achievements. The power of a club as a brand should not be
underestimated but the women’s quarter-final will not be filled with Neymar Jr’s and Kylian Mbappe’s and should not be compared to such. The quarter-final tie will showcase some of the best players in Europe in the women’s game and should be judged on it’s own merit, not compared to the men’s teams that exist in a completely different universe to the women’s teams in forms of funding, resources and acceptance.
Arsenal Women have an amazing opportunity to gain new fans and represent English women’s football on the European stage, with the benefit of BT Sport coverage. Fingers crossed that this level of coverage of women’s football will not here and this will instead increase the amount of discussion on women’s football in mainstream sports media.
Arsenal’s quarter-final tie with Paris Saint-Germain will be shown on BT Sport 1 from 6.30pm on Saturday evening.
By Hannah Burt
About The Author
