Women’s Champions League the blocks were drawn on Friday in Nyon, Switzerland.
There are four groups in the Champions League, in all of which at least one Finn plays.
They are included Ria Öling (Rosengård), Katariina Kosola (Häcken), Tinja-Riikka Korpela (AS Roma), Joanna Tynnilä and Nanne Ruuskanen (Brann). Among them, Ruuskanen is injured and has been out of the Norwegian team Branni’s lineup.
Brann, drawn in Group B, is the first women’s Norwegian team to advance to the Champions League group stage.
Advancing to the group stage is a big deal for Norwegian women’s soccer, says Joanna Tynnilä, who moved to Brann at the end of the summer.
– Immediately after the game that secured the spot, you noticed from the reactions of the people what it means to them.
Norwegian women’s soccer expert Bernt-Erik Haaland said that the importance of entering the Champions League is huge.
– It’s the biggest thing you can experience at the club level on the women’s side, in the same way as for the men.
Brann beat Scotland’s Glasgow City 2-0 in the Champions League qualifying match on Wednesday night. The team played the match in front of their own home crowd. Even more than 8,600 supporters had arrived to cheer on the team from the local town of Bergen.
– It’s great that so many supporters had arrived on the spot to support us in the qualifying match. It is clear that it means a lot to us, said the team captain Ingrid Stenevik Norwegian media for NRK.
In the previous partial match in Glasgow, only a good 800 people had come to watch the struggle between the teams, 30 of whom were supporters of the Norwegian team. Stenevik said Brenn’s supporters had been much louder than the Glasgow fans.
“Realistic possibilities”
– I would not have believed at the beginning of the season, when I played in Finland, that I would still reach this point this season. This is one dream come true, Tynnilä, who plays as a defender, rejoices.
However, the return to everyday life after the decisive match came quickly.
– We celebrated getting to the Champions League by playing alone, but not really more than that. We had to immediately return to normal everyday life, as we have a game right away on the weekend, Tynnilä reveals.
The other teams in the group are Lyon from France, Slavia Praha from the Czech Republic and St. Pölten from Austria. Tynnilä, who had a career at TiPS and HJK in Finland, says that he watched the group draw together with his team.
– The initial feelings about the group division were that it was good luck. There are really realistic possibilities to challenge other teams.
– It feels great to be able to face the successful Lyon. There is hardly any information about Slavia Praha and St. Pölten’s teams. I remember that KuPs played against Pölten last year and the games between them had been even.
Finns are the key players of their teams
Among the other teams represented by Finland, Ria Öling’s Swedish team FC Rosengård cleared their way to the next stage of the Champions League by defeating Serbian Subotica.
Malmö team Rosengård’s opposition in the A group is extremely tough, as the reigning Champions League winner FC Barcelona was also drawn in the same group. The other two teams in the group are Portugal’s top team Benfica and Germany’s Eintracht Frankfurt. In the second season, Öling’s Rosengrd lost to German Hoffenheim in the second round of the Champions League.
FC Rosengård has won the Damallsvenskan championship of Sweden’s highest league level twice in a row. Öling got to celebrate the Swedish championship at the end of last season.
In group C, AS Roma, captain of the Helmares, Tinja-Riikka Korpela, will face the big European clubs Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain and AFC Ajax. The Italian team made its way to the group stage by beating Ukrainian Vorska Poltava in the qualifying stage.
The experienced 37-year-old goalkeeper announced in July that he would be joining reigning Serie A champions AS Roma. The team has also started this season convincingly, as it has won all four of its matches and holds the top spot in Serie A.
Chelsea, Real Madrid, Paris FC and Swedish Häcken represented by Katariina Kosola play in group D. Midfielder Kosola’s team defeated the Dutch team Twente in the qualifying matches.
Häcken currently manages the Swedish league Damallsvenskan.
The club of 22-year-old Kosola has changed a lot in Sweden. Kosola, who made a breakthrough at HJK, moved to Sweden in the 21-22 season. Since then, he has gathered to represent, in addition to Häcken, Umeå and Örebro.
The sections of the Swedish teams Häcken and Rosengård are estimated to be the toughest.
The group stage of the Women’s Champions League starts on November 14.