Shels kick-off Women’s Champions League campaign on Wednesday

Shels skipper Pearl Slattery lifting the WNL trophy after the Red won the title last season

Shels skipper Pearl Slattery lifting the WNL trophy after the Red won the title last season Credit: Hugh de Paor (ETPhotos)

Shelbourne enter the Women’s Champions League this week when they face Glasgow City. The WNL winners from last season enter the competition in Round 1 through the Champions Path.

Round 1 is one of two rounds before the 16-team group stage, which begins in November.

This round has two stages, a one-off knockout semi-final on Wednesday 6 September against Glasgow City and depending on that result a final or a third-place play-off on Saturday 9 September against either host team Gintra or Cardiff City.

The Reds are one of 41 teams who enter at this stage of the competition which includes the champions of the UEFA associations ranked eighth and below.

Those teams have been drawn into 11 single-venue knockout mini-tournaments.

Shels have been placed in one of the eight four team groups – there are also three groups with three teams.

Their mini-tournament is being hosted in Lithuania.

Group 8 (hosts: Gintra)

Wednesday 6 September

Semi-finals
Glasgow City vs Shelbourne (10:00)
Gintra vs Cardiff City (16:00)

Saturday 9 September



Third-place match (10:00)
Final (16:00)

The winners of each of the 11 groups including Shelbourne’s group will progress to round 2, into which three teams (Roma, Slavia Prague and Rosengard) have direct entry to bring the teams in this round up to 14.

The winners of the seven knock-out home and away ties between those 14 teams qualify for group stage.

Teams progressing directly to the group stages include holders Barcelona, Lyon, Bayern and Chelsea.

 

About Macdara Ferris

Macdara Ferris is a contributor since 2007 to Hoops Scene (Shamrock Rovers' match day programme) and is the co-author of two books on Shamrock Rovers - 'Tallaght Time: Shamrock Rovers 2009 to 2012' (with Karl … View Full Profile