When is the Women's Champions League draw, who could Wexford Youths face and where can I watch it?
Credit: Steve Alfred (ETPhotos)
The draw for the qualifying round of the Champions League takes place in Nyon on Friday afternoon with Wexford Youths and Linfield set to find out their opponents.
40 teams from across Europe will compete for ten places in the knockout stages with group games set to take place in a host city on the 7th, 10th and 13th of August.
The Women’s National League and NIFL Premiership champions were drawn alongside one another 12 months ago as Linfield hosted a group also containing AFC Ajax and Thor/KA of Iceland.
Youths finished a respectable third in the group while the hosts finished bottom with no points from three games, Wexford having beaten Linfield on the final day to avoid the wooden spoon.
Wexford were particularly impressive in their opening fixture against Ajax, taking the lead early in the second half at Seaview through Rianna Jarrett before falling to a 4-1 defeat.
Tom Elmes’ side have learned from the level of competition faced last year and, while they trail Peamount by eight points domestically, they’ve taken a step up physically this season.
Neither Linfield nor Wexford are hosts this time around but they could still draw one another as Wexford are third seeds and Linfield fourth.
62 teams have entered the competition this season from 50 countries – a record for the competition – with the top 22 given automatic entry to the knockout stages.
The top two in each of the ten best-ranked leagues, as well as the champions of the 11th (Scotland) and 12th (Austria), have been granted a place in the last 32.
Champions Olympique Lyonnais, runners-up Barcelona, English champions Arsenal (featuring Ireland captain Katie McCabe and Louise Quinn) and runners-up Manchester City are among that number.
The remaining 40 clubs from lower-ranked countries will be drawn into ten groups of four teams to determine the final line-up of 32 clubs.
What time is the draw?
Friday, June 21st, 12.30pm Irish time (13.30CET).
Where is it?
UEFA HQ, Nyon, Switzerland.
Where can I watch or stream it online?
The draw will be streamed online via UEFA.com.
What are the possible draws for Wexford Youths?
Unlike the qualifying rounds for the men’s tournaments, which are broadly regionalised in the early stages, the women’s Champions League sees groups of four drawn based on seedings.
Ten host clubs have been chosen already and – this is where it gets complicated – they will be placed in the group depending on their seeding.
The clubs range from top seeds like Gintra Universitetas of Lithuania – who were in Youths’ groups in both 2015-16 and 2016-17 – to fourth seeds Rigas Futbola Skola of Latvia.
Once each host city is placed, the rest of the pots will be drawn in reverse order, with Pot Two, containing the fourth seeds, being drawn first and so on.
As third seeds, Wexford cannot be sent to either Anderlecht in Belgium, Slovan Bratislava in Slovakia, Breznica Pljevlja in Montenegro or Flora Tallinn in Estonia.
Trips to Twente in the Netherlands, SFK 2000 Sarajevo in Bosnia and Kharkiv in Ukraine remain on the cards, however, as does a third battle with Gintra.
Wexford will also avoid being drawn alongside other non-seeds like Braga of Portugal, Cardiff Met of Wales and Beskitas of Turkey.
They will draw one top seed, the pot for which includes Hibernian of Scotland, 2017 opponents BIIK-Kazygurt of Kazakhstan and last season’s quarter-finalists LSK Kvinner of Norway.
Pot 1 (hosts)
Gintra Universitetas (LTU) coefficient 27.930 – 1
FC Twente (NED) 26.900 – 1
SFK 2000 Sarajevo (BIH) 15.690 – 1
Kharkiv (UKR) 11.800 – 2
Pomurje Beltinci (SVN) 9.640 – 2
Anderlecht (BEL) 5.465 – 3
Slovan Bratislava (SVK) 2.990 – 3
Breznica Pljevlja (MNE) 1.995 – 3
Flora Tallinn (EST) 1.485 – 3
R?gas Futbola skola (LVA) 1.330 – 4
Pot 2 (seeding position 4)
Birkirkara (MLT) 0.830
EBS/Skála (FRO) 0.825
Linfield (NIR) 0.660
Mitrovica (KOS) 0.330
Agarista - SS Anenii Noi (MDA) 0.165
ŽFK Dragon 2014 (MKD) 0.000
Bettembourg (LUX) 0.000
FC Nike (GEO) 0.000
Alashkert (ARM) 0.000
Pot 3 (seeding position 3)
Wexford Youths (IRL) 6.305
ASA Tel-Aviv University (ISR) 3.650
Braga (POR) 3.630
Cardiff Met (WAL) 3.325
ŽNK Split (CRO) 2.970
Be?ikta? (TUR) 2.475
Pot 4 (seeding position 2)
Sturm Graz (AUT) 11.270
PAOK (GER) 10.965
Breidablik (ISL) 10.930
PK-35 Vantaa (FIN) 8.635
Górnik ??czna (POL) 7.940
Ferencváros (HUN) 7.465
Vllaznia (ALB) 7.315
NSA Sofia (BUL) 6.650
Pot 5 (seeding position 1)
LSK Kvinner (NOR) 42.205
BIIK-Kazygurt (KAZ) 34.580
Apollon LFC (CYP) 20.270
ŽFK Spartak (SRB) 17.955
FC Minsk (BLR) 16.625
Universitatae Olimpia Cluj (ROU) 15.960
Hibernian (SCO) 13.085
Bye to Round of 32
1 Lyon (FRA, holders) 129.865
2 Wolfsburg (GER) 112.575
3 Paris Saint-Germain (FRA) 99.865
4 Barcelona (ESP) 91.160
5 Bayern München (GER) 67.575
6 Slavia Praha (CZE) 59.870
7 Manchester City (ENG) 59.655
8 Brøndby (DEN) 50.045
9 Fortuna Hjørring (DEN) 47.045
10 FC Zürich (SUI) 44.230
11 Glasgow City (SCO) 34.085
12 Atlético Madrid (ESP) 33.160
13 Sparta Praha (CZE) 32.870
14 Fiorentina (ITA) 26.890
15 St. Pölten (AUT) 20.270
16 Arsenal (ENG) 17.655
17 Piteå (SWE) 17.655
18 Göteborg (SWE) 17.655
19 Juventus (ITA) 14.890
20 Ryazan-VDV (RUS) 14.580
21 Lugano (SUI) 10.230
22 Chertanovo (RUS) 8.580
