Can anyone stop Barcelona from defending the Women's Champions League? Chelsea, Lyon and the contenders to triumph in Europe - ranked

Undoubtedly the team to beat, Barcelona exorcised the demons of the 2022 final, in which they lost 3-1 to Lyon, when they came from 2-0 down to beat Wolfsburg in the 2023 edition, the two teams giving fans a truly thrilling conclusion to the season. There aren’t many betting against them lifting that trophy again this season, either.

The Catalans have made a 100 percent start to the new campaign, winning all nine of their league fixtures so far by an aggregate score of 34-2, and have an even stronger side than they did last year, too.

Two-time Ballon d’Or winner Alexia Putellas is available from the off after recovering from her ACL injury in the latter stages of last season, Caroline Graham Hansen is also fully fit having spent several months on the sidelines during 2022-23, and new signing Esmee Brugts had slotted in nicely, too, the 20-year-old arriving off the back of a stunning World Cup with the Netherlands.

Barca are not invincible, of course. They can be suspect on the counter at times, especially with how much the full-backs get forward, and though they are very creative, they are not always the most clinical side, although moving Putellas into a No.9 role has added a more ruthless presence to the penalty area.

Still, an opponent has to be pretty perfect themselves if they are to get the better of arguably the best team in the world right now. Is anyone capable of producing that flawless performance to stop Barca?

Enter a team that has crushed Barca’s dreams on the biggest stage before - Lyon. The eight-time European champions claimed the last of those titles in 2022 when they stunned Barca in the final in Turin, racing into a 3-0 lead with barely 30 minutes gone.

The French giants put up a rather limp defence of that title, by their standards, when they succumbed to a penalty shootout defeat in the quarter-finals of last season’s competition at the hands of Chelsea. But the last time they were eliminated in the last eight, they bounced back to win the competition the following season. Could that be the case this time as well?

Well, Lyon certainly look sharp, that much is for sure, making a perfect start to the new season despite some very tricky fixtures already. OL beat Paris Saint-Germain in the Trophee des Champions to kick the campaign off and have since beaten their bitter rivals again in the league, while also thrashing UWCL surprise package Paris FC, who knocked both Arsenal and Wolfsburg out in qualifying to reach the group stages.

Eugenie Le Sommer is on fire, Ada Hegerberg is back scoring goals after some injury troubles, Kadidiatou Diani is settling well after arriving from PSG and the same goes for Melchie Dumornay, the incredibly talented 20-year-old who joined in the summer from Reims.

Lyon should get through the group stages without any serious trouble – Slavia Prague, Norwegian side Brann and Austria’s St. Polten have landed in Group B with them – so it might not be until the knockout stages that we really see their UWCL title credentials tested.

But with everyone once again talking about Barca, they will be eager to remind everyone just how good they are. That certainly motivated them to beat the Catalans in 2022.

Could it be a Hollywood script that sees Barca dethroned? Emma Hayes will leave Chelsea at the season’s conclusion, set to be the new coach of the United States women’s national team. It will bring to an end her 12-year stint as Blues manager, one which has brought with it 15 trophies – but not glory in the Women’s Champions League.

It’s the one title that Hayes and Chelsea crave so much. They came close in 2021 when they reached the final for the first time, but the showpiece game itself wasn’t close at all, Barca running out 4-0 winners in an absolute rout. However, anyone involved in that triumph for the Catalans will tell you that their own thrashing at the hands of Lyon just two years prior was crucial in helping them to go that one step further.

There were signs that the Blues had learned a lot from that defeat when they faced Barca again in the semi-finals of last season’s UWCL. Hayes’ game plan was to soak up the pressure and catch their opponents in transition - and it caused problems. A 1-1 draw made them the first team to deny Barca Femeni a win in a Camp Nou game, but it wasn’t enough because of a 1-0 defeat at Stamford Bridge in the first leg.

If they meet again this season, one would say Chelsea are better equipped to execute that game plan. Fran Kirby is back and the club strengthened over the summer, too, adding a world-class full-back in Ashley Lawrence, more depth up front with USWNT striker Mia Fishel and a versatile talent in Sjoeke Nusken. When Catarina Macario recovers from her ACL injury, they’ll be able to introduce one of the best players on the planet into a squad that already has a few more on that level, too.

The reigning English champions have made an unbeaten start to the new season without really getting out of second gear, which is a rather unnerving prospect for their opponents. Do they have what it takes to make Hayes’ last dance a fairy-tale one?

Almost always a bridesmaid and rarely a bride, Paris Saint-Germain have long lived in the shadow of Lyon in the women’s game. Only once have they pipped OL to a league title, that one of just five trophies the club has won in its 52-year history.

But the Parisians have twice knocked Lyon out of Europe’s premier competition, first in 2015, on their way to their first of two UWCL finals, and then again 2021, though they were narrowly beaten by Barca in the semi-finals that year.

After being eliminated in the quarter-finals by Wolfsburg last season, are there any signs that PSG could be a genuine contender in the Champions League this year? Their two defeats to Lyon already this season suggest that there are further steps the team needs to take to be a real threat to the elite, but there are positive signs, too.

The departure of Diani to rivals OL was a big blow, with the France star among the best players in the world. She was one of 10 players to leave in the summer, on top of eight new arrivals, which means that PSG might just need a little bit of time to click, especially given how big a part of the attack Diani was.

Tabitha Chawinga already looks like an inspired signing, the ex-Inter forward capable of causing any team problems with her electric pace and goal-scoring instincts, and the fact that Marie-Antoinette Katoto, the club’s all-time top scorer, is back from an ACL injury is great news, too.

One of PSG’s problems early on in the season, though, has been making their dominant spells in matches really count. They can lack the ruthlessness to take their chances, despite creating plenty, and it can either cost them a win or make securing one a little bit nervier than it should be.

They need to address that if they want to have success in this season’s UWCL because they’ve landed in what is being coined this year’s ‘Group of Death’, alongside Bayern Munich, Roma and Ajax.

Another of last season’s quarter-finalists, Bayern Munich would’ve been kicking themselves that they didn’t go at least one round further in the competition. The German giants were beaten 2-1 on aggregate by Arsenal, but had the chances to prevent that from being the case in what was a thrilling tie.

Still, Bayern took huge steps forward in their first year with head coach Alexander Straus, snatching the title of German champions from Wolfsburg and even beating Barca 3-1 in the Champions League group stages.

“We want to play dominant and attacking football,” Straus told GOAL last season. “We want to play offensive with a lot of passes and a lot of rotation. We want to control and have the ball – and when we lose the ball, we want to get it back as fast as possible.” That approach has made Bayern a team to keep an eye on as they try to push on, challenge Europe’s top sides and become a UWCL contender in their own right.

Former Chelsea duo Magdalena Eriksson and Pernille Harder have certainly strengthened the squad, and there is excitement about what some of the more up-and-coming arrivals can bring to the table, too – such as Colombia teen Ana Maria Guzman, Dutch talent Jill Beijings and Scotland midfielder Sam Kerr.

Yet to lose this season, Bayern beat top-of-the-table Wolfsburg earlier this month to rise to the summit of the Frauen-Bundesliga themselves, but they have stuttered already in the new campaign. Dropping points in draws with Freiburg and Eintracht Frankfurt, the Bavarians don’t give up many chances, but they can lack the creativity themselves at times to really put results beyond doubt.

In that ‘Group of Death’ with PSG, Roma and Ajax, they’ll need to bring their ‘A’ game from the off if they want to improve on last year’s run to the last eight.

We continue to move into underdog territory, but even if these sides haven’t reached the pointy end of the Champions League season before doesn’t mean that they’re not a threat in this competition this year.

Real Madrid are new to the women’s game, only entering it three years ago, but they’ve already played a Champions League quarter-final and a major cup final, losing on penalties to Atletico Madrid in the Copa de la Reina last season.

Las Blancas have a squad packed with talent, featuring the likes of Linda Caicedo, Colombia’s teen sensation; Olga Carmona, the match-winner in this year’s World Cup final; and Teresa Abelleira, who was one of Spain’s most outstanding players in that triumph in Australia.

They’re also starting to get more competitive in their meetings with Barcelona, Spain’s dominant side, losing only 1-0 in their last meeting in March after taking their Super Cup encounter in January to extra-time.

Real still have a way to go to be one of Europe’s premier sides. There are often questions around the decision-making of head coach Alberto Toril, the team will seriously miss the contributions of Scotland star Caroline Weir after her ACL rupture in September, and they are in a group that is much trickier than it appears. Las Blancas and Chelsea will be the favourites to progress from it, but Swedish side Hacken and Paris FC, who defeated both Arsenal and Wolfsburg in qualifying, shouldn’t be counted out by any means.

Regardless, the Spanish giants can still count on plenty of top-class match-winners, many of whom are capable of troubling even the best defences.

A debutante when last season’s Champions League got underway, Roma ended that historic campaign as a quarter-finalist, making Barca work extremely hard for a 1-0 win in the first leg of their encounter in the last eight. It was an incredible season for the Giallorosse, one which ended in a first Serie A title, a Super Cup triumph and that wonderful run in Europe.

There are not many teams in the game more exciting to watch than Roma. Alessandro Spugna is a coach with a fantastically fluid philosophy and the club is one of the best at recruiting players that fit his style. Austria's energetic midfielder Laura Feiersinger and Canada striker Evelyne Viens are the latest new arrivals to highlight the club’s excellent work in the transfer windows, scoring seven goals between them in Roma’s first seven games of the new Serie A campaign.

Ten wins from their opening 10 matches – Juventus, Inter and AC Milan were all dispatched in that run – means Spugna’s side go into the Champions League group stages in some form, and they will hope that confidence can help them navigate difficult match-ups with Bayern, PSG and Ajax.

It’s just their second-ever experience in the UWCL so there’s still a long journey ahead for the Italians, but they have improved over the last year, they’re more experienced and they will be a tough opponent for anyone in this competition.