THE competitive imbalance in women’s club football in Europe will be underscored this week in the final round of Champions League group-stage matches where little is on the line because of the dominance of the continent’s top teams.

The eight teams advancing to the quarter-finals have already secured their spots with one round remaining: Lyon and Wolfsburg from Group A; Chelsea and Real Madrid from Group B; Bayern Munich and Arsenal from Group C; and Manchester City and Barcelona from Group D.

All are either established clubs in the women’s game — especially Lyon and Wolfsburg, the winners of nine of the 10 Champions League titles from 2011-2020 — or huge European clubs in men’s football who have started to really pour money and extra focus into their women’s teams in recent years. Madrid’s women’s team, for example, was only founded in 2020.