The website dedicated to women's football across the country, at ALL levels of the game

@en

@en

Chelsea out and Arsenal through - just

The final round of matches in the group stage of the UEFA Women’s Champions League turned out to be something of a nightmare for the two Barclays FA WSL clubs, with both suffering heavy defeats leading to one team scraping through to the quarter finals and the other ending up with a shock elimination.

Arsenal were first in action on Wednesday night, travelling to Hoffenheim knowing that avoiding defeat would be enough to take them through, whilst the home side needed a five-goal margin of victory in order to knock them out. Although Jule Brand put Hoffenheim in front midway through the first half, an own goal from Laura Wienrother brought the Gunners back on level terms by half time and things seemed to be running smoothly at that stage. However, an astonishing five minutes spell just before the hour saw Hoffenheim score three times and raise genuine fears that Arsenal were heading rapidly towards the exit door. Chantal Hagel netted a quickfire double before Gia Corley made it 4-1, leaving the German side requiring two more. Arsenal managed to close the door and prevent any more goals being conceded, meaning they go into the quarter final draw but on the back of a third heavy defeat in four matches.

Chelsea also made the trip to Germany to take on VfL Wolfsburg, again needing a point to be sure of winning the group. Wolfsburg meanwhile needed a victory to make sure and threw all they could at Chelsea, with two goals from Svenja Huth putting them two ahead at half time. One goal would have been enough for Chelsea at this stage but it was Tabea Wassmuth who scored next, and with Chelsea forced to pile forward in search of goals, Wassmuth capitalised on a mistake to fire home her second on the night and make it 4-0.

This left Chelsea looking anxiously at the other score in the group but their worst fears were confirmed as Juventus romped to a 4-0 victory over Servette FCCF and although the top three teams all finished level on eleven points after their six matches, it was Chelsea who were dumped into third place and out of the competition.  

The draw for the quarter finals will be made on Monday and Arsenal, Wolfsburg and Juventus will be joined by Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid, Olympique Lyonnais and Bayern Munich.