The new Women's Champions League format has debuted this week, and the results from the first matchday clearly show why a format like the league phase is useful (the same reason why it also makes sense for men's football): the huge unevenness between the elite women's football clubs in Europe has led to some scandalous thrashings, like Barcelona scoring seven goals against Bayern Munich on Tuesday, and Real Madrid and Atlético de Madrid scoring six against Roma and St. Polten.
The league phase, where each club will faces six different clubs only once, allows for a greater variety of matches, meaning each club should (at least in theory) have more chances of being paired against rivals at the same level.
These are the results from matchday 1 of the league phase in Women's Champions League 2025/26:
Juventus 2 - 1 Benfica
Arsenal 1 - 2 OL Lyonnes
Barcelona 7 - 1 Bayern München
Paris FC 2 - 2 OH Leuven
Twente 1 - 1 Chelsea
Real Madrid 6 - 2 Roma
Manchester United 1 - 0 Vålerenga
St. Pölten 0 - 6 Atlético de Madrid
Wolfsburg 4 - 0 Paris Saint-Germain
We won't have to wait long to find out how this continues, as the second matchday happens next week. There will be six in total until December, with quarter-finales scheduled for March 2026, knockout phase play-offs earlier in February, and the semis and final in April and May.