Peamount United learn Champions League opponents as draw pits them against Serbian side Spartak Subotica

The draw for the Women’s Champions League took place at UEFA Headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland this morning with current Women’s National League Champions Peamount United learning their fate for this season’s opening round.

The Dublin club were drawn in Group 9 in the Champions Path and they will travel to face nine time Serbian Champions ZFK Spartak Subotica on Wednesday, 18 August.

Subotica progressed through the first two qualifying rounds in last season’s competition before losing 9-0 over two legs to Atletico Madrid.

Should James O’Callaghan’s side progress they will take on the winner of FC Twente and Tblisi Nike for a spot in the second round of the competition on Saturday 21 August.

Last year, Peamount United were knocked out of the competition in the first round when they were defeated by Glasgow City after extra-time and penalties.

Northern Irish Champions Glentoran were drawn against Switzerland's Servette FC Chênois.

The new UEFA Women’s Champions League format explained:

Peamount United enter the competition on the Champions Path which is made up of 44 league champions from the football associations ranked 7-50 by their UEFA coefficients.

There will be 11 winners from the four team ‘mini-tournaments’ in Round One and they will join the three league champions from the fourth, fifth and sixth highest ranked associations in Round Two.

The seven winners from the second round join the current Women’s Champions League winners, Barcelona and the three champions from the top three leagues in the 16 team group stages.



The remaining five places in the group stages are filled from the League Path, which consists of the ten runners up from the leagues ranked 7-16 and the six third place teams from the leagues ranked 1-6.

Four teams will progress to the second round after winning their four team ‘mini-tournaments’ joining six runners up from the 1-6 ranked associations. Five teams progress from that second round to fill the remaining group stage spots.

The groups will be completed by the end of December 2021 with the quarter-finals held in March and the semi-finals held in April before the competition’s final is held on Sunday, 22 May at Juventus Stadium in Turin.

    About Paul Corcoran

    Paul Corcoran is an experienced writer and journalist and has contributed to various publications including the Galway United match programme Maroon View. He spends much of his time covering the fortunes of Galway United's teams … View Full Profile