Latest news from QueenBallers

As the winner of The Best FIFA Women's Player for 2024 at the ceremony on Tuesday, Aitana Bonmati was the highlight selection for the top 11 of the year, with fellow Barca stars Irene Paredes, Ona Batlle, Caroline Graham Hansen, Salma Paralluelo and Patri Guijarro.

After a brilliant 16-year international career, the 39-year-old is hanging up her cleats for both club and country. Three-time World Cup participant, three-time Olympic Gamed participant and U.S. Women's national team legend Becky Sauerbrunn has announced her professional retirement.

The 39-year-old defender registered 219 caps across 16 years with the program, while on the club side, she participated in every single season of the NWSL since its founding, winning two championships (2014, 2015), an NWSL Title (2022) and an NWSL Shield (2021). Between 2013 and 2024, Sauerbrunn 167 of her 182 caps during that time frame, and overall, has the 10th-most in USWNT history.

It was announced last year that a second women's club competition would be introduced in Europe for the 2025-26 season, to sit under the Women's Champions League as the Europa League does on the men's side, and that it would take on a straight knockout format, but no name had been decided by that point. UEFA has now confirmed that it will be called the Women's Europa Cup and that it will have a two-legged knockout format.

Real Madrid qualified for their fourth consecutive Women's Champions League group stage. They did so after qualifying from a preliminary play-off against Sporting CP, whom they beat in both matches. In the second leg, played at the Alfredo Di Stéfano, the Portuguese took an early lead, but a brace from Toletti and a superb goal from Alba Redondo allowed Toril's side to confirm their place among the 16 teams in Friday's draw in Nyon.
Both sides knew what was at stake, which was evident from the first minute. It was a lively start in which Sporting CP took the lead in the 5th minute from a free-kick taken by Andreia Bravo which, after being flicked on by Fatima Pinto, was headed home by Capeta. The visitors' joy was short-lived as Madrid's response was immediate. Feller stole the ball near the penalty area and combined with Weir, who pulled it back for Toletti to fire home with her right foot (1-1, min. 7).
Penalty not given
Shortly afterwards it was Misa who kept out another Portuguese strike with a reflex save to deny Capeta's close-range effort. In the 25th minute, Real Madrid claimed a penalty for a clear foul inside the area by Cláudia Neto on Feller, but the referee waved play on. Our team had the last chance of the first half with a deflected header by M. Méndez from a corner kick by Leupolz.
Right at the start of the second half, Toletti was on target again to complete the comeback and extend the lead. Weir set up the Frenchwoman for the second time, who struck a precise right-footed shot to make it 2-1. Tiredness would then take its toll on the tempo of the game, but the Lisbon side wanted to get back into the contest and it was Misa who kept them out with a couple of fine saves. In stoppage time, Alba Redondo's right-footed shot into the top corner made it 3-1 and sealed Real Madrid’s place in the Women's Champions League group stage.

• UWCL group stage draw made on Friday
• Chelsea get Real Madrid; Man City to face Barca
• Arsenal land in 'group of death'

The draw for this year's group stage was made on Friday and it has thrown up some tantalising fixtures. Reigning European champions Barcelona have been pooled with Man City, as the English side make the group stages for the first time since the competition changed format in 2021, while Chelsea, still chasing a first UWCL title, will take on Real Madrid.

Jill Roord will make a return to Manchester City squad after spending eight months on the sidelines following an anterior cruciate ligament injury.

• Roord suffered an ACL injury in late January
• Has returned to full training post-recovery
• Will be inducted in squad against Brighton

Roord picked up the injury in City’s Conti Cup group stage victory over Manchester United back in January. And after a long road to recovery, she was finally cleared to join her team-mates in training in September.

PSG went into the second leg of this second round qualifier with plenty of work to do, having lost 3-1 in Turin last Wednesday. That task became even harder almost immediately when Sofia Cantore capitalised on the chaos caused by a Juve corner to put her team 1-0 up on the night, and even further ahead on aggregate, with only two minutes on the clock.

It took until after half-time for the Parisians to get one back, when Romee Leuchter converted from the penalty spot after a foul on Marie-Antoinette Katoto, but it did spark them into life a little. Korbin Albert was extremely close to reducing that deficit further when she struck the crossbar and then Jennifer Echegini forced a strong save out of Pauline Peyraud-Magnin.

However, set piece defending - or a lack thereof - proved PSG's undoing once again, Barbara Bonansea coming off the bench to dart completely unmarked to the near post and flick a header beyond Earps that killed the tie off with 18 minutes remaining.

It had looked far from certain after the first leg but Arsenal ensured there will be three Women’s Super League teams in the Champions League group stage for the first time with a comfortable victory over Häcken.

With Chelsea having secured a place as WSL champions and Manchester City 5-0 up on Paris FC from their away leg of their second round tie (an advantage converted into an 8-0 aggregate success on Thursday night), the pressure was on Arsenal to deliver, Jonas Eidevall’s side needing to overturn a 1-0 deficit.

Eidevall had said Arsenal needed to be in the group stage, adding that it would be a failure if they did not qualify. Arsenal do need the group stage if they are to continue their progress on and off the pitch, with the club committed to playing all such games at the Emirates Stadium, but the head coach needed it too. Had his team failed to qualify, it would have been inevitable that his future would have been questioned.

These are the fine margins coaches are forced to operate within. But instead of talk of heads rolling, there were four goals, happy fans and now packed-out Champions League nights under the lights to look forward to. Arsenal go into Friday’s draw at noon.

“It was really important given we’ve built the squad to get into this position, to get into the group stage and compete in the league,” Eidevall said.

“It’s tough to be in the league path [in qualification], it’s a tough start to the season, it’s knockout football, it’s small margins, this was a tough opponent but also tough placement playing Manchester City at the Emirates in between.”

The manager made three changes to the team that earned a point in the 2-2 draw at the Emirates with Manchester City on Sunday, with Lia Wälti, Alessia Russo and Beth Mead returning to the starting XI in place of Frida Maanum, Caitlin Foord and Kyra Cooney-Cross.

Arsenal had been profligate against City and were left ruing missed chances and two dropped points having taken an early lead. There could be no room for the same wastefulness at Meadow Park for the visit of Häcken. The Swedish side had already punished Arsenal for making that mistake against a resilient low block in Gothenburg.

Mak Lind made one change to the side that secured a huge 1-0 home win in the first leg, with Hikaru Kitagawa replacing the forward Alice Bergström.

Eidevall had called the trip to Gothenburg a “step backwards”. At Meadow Park Häcken were keen to turn that step into a slide, attacking early on with the intensity that they had finished the opening leg with.

The visitors were having a lot of joy down Arsenal’s left side, with Katie McCabe’s advanced position leaving space in behind, but it was Arsenal who got the goal that levelled the tie rather than Häcken extending their advantage, with Wälti’s first-time strike from distance in the 23rd minute coming down off the bar and off the back of goalkeeper Jennifer Falk and in.

The goal seemed to relax the shoulders of the players in red, who laboured hard in the relentless rain, and the momentum started to swing their way more definitively.

The goal that put them in front was messy but hard earned. Mead’s effort was blocked, Häcken cleared but only as far as Mariona Caldentey, who arrived from the left and her strike was clipped up and over Falk by the foot of Emma Östlund.

Häcken instantly tested Arsenal after the break after Caldentey gifted the ball to Tabitha Tindell, who cut past Lotte Wubben-Moy but her shot did not trouble Manuela Zinsberger.

The goal that gave Arsenal breathing room came moments later. McCabe’s cross was headed back to her by Emily Fox and the Republic of Ireland captain put it into the middle for Mead, who flicked the ball over a defender and sent a vicious strike in as she spun.

With the tie stretching beyond them, Häcken had to go for it, leaving room for Arsenal to manoeuvre in the final third.

Arsenal’s fourth goal arrived after the changes, as the substitutes Foord and Maanum combined, with the former sending in the cross that the Norwegian turned in. In the end it was a routine victory, but Arsenal need to do better at lifting the pressure off themselves far sooner. “The season starts now here, we can’t relax,” said Eidevall. “We’re in all four competitions we want to be in – now we have to make the most of it.”