When Manchester City Women return to the UEFA Women’s Champions League on 9 October, it will be with fewer expectations than the last time they appeared in the Champions League proper, but little else will have changed. The team, beleaguered by Spanish foe, last saw main draw action on 31 March 2021 when they were favourites to overcome a 3-goal deficit against Barcelona Femení, playing at home at the Academy Stadium. Their comeback will be three and a half years later, facing the same opponents at (probably) the same venue.
In those three and a half years, Barcelona has cemented itself as the likely favourites – collecting three Champions League victories in the time since Man City was last qualified – but that wasn’t really the case in 2021, leading Barça supporters to dub the match the miracle in Manchester.
Yes, Barcelona was in their first season of true dominance, the season that won Alèxia Putellas her first everything, but the strength of the WSL’s wealthier teams was a fear factor, as was the international calibre of their players. In Barça’s home match of the tie against Manchester City (actually played in Italy due to the pandemic), their comfortable dominance continued. But even being forced behind closed doors, the home advantage the English team would have was not underestimated by Spanish fans. If anything, it was the British press who felt the Catalan side were too all-conquering for Man City to overcome. In a perhaps surprising twist, the British press giving Barça Femení due plaudits did correctly predict their overall victory. Still, Barcelona’s midfield was too-easily penetrated, and attackers moving back to reinforce meant there was little forward momentum and the defence got haphazard. Sandra Paños saved a Chloe Kelly rocket but couldn’t keep out a scrambling Janine Beckie; at the other end, Lucy Bronze (with Man City) made a goal-line clearance to stop Asisat Oshoala after Ellie Roebuck (then Man City, now at Barça) was forced into a sudden save – neither could stop Oshoala’s inevitable equaliser, before Sam Mewis gave Manchester City the victory from the penalty spot after Leila Ouahabi (then for Barça, but now at Man City herself) took down Ellen White.
The Cityzens may have won that last game but they lost the tie, Barça Femení not being flustered by the small stumble on their otherwise golden road to 2021 UWCL victory. In Manchester City bowing out gracefully, vice-captain-with-the-armband Keira Walsh was player of the match, though goalkeeper Ellie Roebuck was Sky Sports’ choice for the honour. Both will now be sat in the away team dugout in Manchester.
And since Manchester City Women’s UWCL history has been indelibly linked with Walsh in particular, could they cause headaches for their formative team? It was a teenage Walsh who has hailed by the club (and that British press) as Man City’s strongest hope ahead of the team entering the Champions League for the first time – a confidence she quickly returned by being named player of the match in their first ever UWCL game – and it is Walsh who still has the record for most Champions League matches played for the club (29) – a feat she achieved in her final match for the Cityzens, their qualifying round loss to Real Madrid in August 2022 (while her tour-de-force performance against her current club was the last time Manchester City was in the Champions League proper, they appeared in qualifiers for a few seasons thereafter). That appearance also saw her draw level with now-retired Man City captain Steph Houghton for most matches played for the club in all competitions (211).
Any of Manchester City’s current players has a way to go before matching Walsh’s UWCL record, but Houghton did reclaim the total matches solo record, and the club’s return to the Champions League group stage (in which they, like Barça Femení, will also play Hammarby and St. Pölten) is almost certainly going to see another Walsh record usurped: the last Champions League goal scored for Man City, their sixth in their penultimate game back in August 2022, is in the UEFA books as a goalkeeper own goal, but that deflection came from Keira Walsh.
Will she be able to pull off something similar for Barcelona this time around? Could Roebuck make an appearance for her new club to show off the game management skills that kept Manchester City in it?
Or could a player who has gone in the other direction come to haunt Barça Femení? It was Man City’s then-vice captain Walsh who was the biggest threat to Barcelona in 2021, and the Cityzens’ current vice captain is Laia Aleixandri, a former Barcelona player from the same La Masia generation as Ona Batlle. Aleixandri was also on Barça’s radar to bring home over the summer, had Walsh herself left the club. Another familiar face will be seen in Leila Ouahabi, ultimately responsible for one of Manchester City’s goals in that last face-off when she played for Barcelona, she’ll presumably be aiming for a similar contribution now that she wears their colours.
If there’s any miracle in Manchester to be had, though, it should hopefully be one for an exciting match. With both Barcelona and Man City expected to progress from a group that may be tougher than it looks on paper, tight matches could translate into stilted defensive play. Manchester City Women’s style hasn’t been the same (read: less Barça-esque) since Gareth Taylor was installed as their manager, and sometimes we wish Pep Guardiola could be given charge of all the club’s teams, but like Barça Femení they are still recognised for dynamism and (pockets of) consistency. As fans of the game, it would be a shame for either team to be too guarded, though it would be hard to blame Man City if they did choose that route, wanting to last as long in the Champions League as they can now that they’re back in it. With Barcelona, though, on a high of two consecutive titles, the performance momentum should keep rolling.
Off the back of that, a miracle might have to mean exactly what it did three and a half years ago: standout players and Barcelona Femení progressing in comfort.
