Birkirkara women’s team has been handed a tough draw in the first round of the UEFA Women’s Champions League as they were pitted with Scotland giants Glasgow City in one of Group 2 semi-finals.
In their second group game, the Maltese representatives will face one between Kazakhstan’s WFC BIIK-Shymkent or SK Slovan Bratislava of Slovakia.
Round 1 is one of two rounds before the new 16-team group stage, which begins in October. It will be split into two paths: the champions path and the league path.
In both paths, round 1 will consist of two stages, each of one-off matches: semi-finals (18 August) and finals/third-place play-offs (21 August). The winners of each final (11 in champions path, four in league path) will progress to round 2.
Birkirkara were one of the unseeded teams in Pot 2 of the champions path with Glasgow City among the top seeded teams in Pot 1. The Scottish side are at the back of their 14th domestic title in a row, fending off the challenge of newcomers Celtic and Rangers.
Glasgow are a familiar name to Maltese women’s football after Swieqi United had embarked on a historic project with the Scottish giants in the interest of promoting and help growing the women’s game, last year.
This will be the third time that Glasgow will face a Maltese side at this stage of the competition after meeting Mosta in 2011 and Birkirkara in 2013.
A record 72 teams from 50 different associations will take part in the new-look 2021/22 UEFA Women’s Champions League.
The final is scheduled on May 22, at the Juventus Stadium in Torino.
Groundbreaking deal
The UEFA Women’s Champions League will be bigger than ever in 2021/22 and fans can look forward to groundbreaking coverage thanks to a new four-year global broadcasting partnership with streaming platform DAZN, together with YouTube.
A first for the competition, the new deal will greatly increase exposure to women’s football as the UEFA Women’s Champions League introduces a a 16-team group stage for the first time. And, for supporters, that means unprecedented access.
For the first two seasons (2021/22 and 2022/23), fans will be able to watch live and on demand all 61 matches from the group stage onward on DAZN, and free on DAZN’s YouTube channel. For the following two seasons (2023/24 and 2024/25), all 61 matches will be shown live on DAZN, while 19 matches will be free to view on DAZN’s YouTube channel.
