The Europen competition is in the third round of the group stage and it brought new emotions. There were interesting outings in Paris and Turin. In the French capital, PSG players defeated Real Madrid 4-0, Juventus drew against VfL Wolfsburg, and Chelsea defeated Swiss Servette.
GROUP A
In Group A, the key match was played in Turin, where Juventus faced Wolfsburg. Juventus have won against Swiss Servette and were defeated by Chelsea before Tuesday's meeting with VfL Wolfsburg. It was a match for the coach Joe Montemurro to verify whether the Italian champions would be able to realistically join the fight for promotion from the group. In the first quarter of an hour, there were a lot of battles in the middle of the pitch, both teams were rather afraid to take the risk. That changed in the 22nd minute when the home team took the lead. Cristiana Girelli received a precise square pass from inside the field, the Juve forward avoided the offside trap and beat Almuth Schult with a strike from the long post. Such a development of events forced "The Wolves" to open up and attack the Turin team more courageously. The charges of coach Thomas Stroot responded immediately, as Lena Lattwein was able to equalize three minutes later. The midfielder of VfL Wolfsburg reached the deflected ball and, without hesitation, struck from the vicinity of the twenty-meter pitch. Pauline Peyraud-Magnin just watched the ball headed straight in the top corner.
The visitors who tried to surprise the Juventus goalkeeper with long shots felt much more confident on the pitch, but Peyraud-Magnin was not surprised. The draw lasted until the break. In the 53rd minute, Kathy Hendrich, the defender of "The Wolves", recorded a key intervention in his own penalty area, at the last minute blocking Bonansei's strike. Soon after, VfL Wolfsburg launched a deadly counterattack, and the opportunity was finished by the team's most effective sniper rifle in the Champions League, Tabea Wassmuth. The German runners-up did not step back on the defensive and were looking for an opportunity to increase their goals. It seemed that the home team from Turin would start to make up for the losses, but the visitors were closer to noticing another hit on their account. In the 89th minute Felicitas Rauch, the wolves defender, was punished with a second yellow, and consequently a red card. The Wolfsburg players had to play at the end of the game with 10 players, and the Juve players took advantage of this in the extra time. Almuth Schult was defeated by Girelli for the second time in this meeting, providing her team with an important point in the clash with the runners-up against Germany.
In the other match of this group, Servette took on the finalists of the last edition of the tournament, Chelsea. The favorites to win this match were the charges of coach Emma Hayes, who have four points, the same amount as VfL Wolfsburg. The Blues team ranks second in the group, right behind the back of the German team, while Servette has not even collected a point in this edition so far. It was raining goals at the Geneva stadium as Chelsea completely dominated the Swiss champions.
The away team opened the scoring in the eighth minute when Melanie Leupolz hit Servette's net. German international received a deep-field pass from Millie Bright and hit next to helpless Ines Pereira. Moments after the end of the first quarter of an hour, Londoners were already leading with the difference of two goals, this time the local goalkeeper was defeated by Fran Kirby. Then the bag with goals dissolved for good, and Chelsea hit the Swiss net four more times. First, the Blues forward Sam Kerr scored a brace two minutes apart, followed by Kirby and Jessie Fleming. Servette players were helpless in the face of the team from London and they could not cope with the defensive game at all. The English champions continued to look for an opportunity to increase the result, and they did so in the second half. Five minutes after their return to the pitch Guro Reiten scored bringing Chelsea 7-0. In this part of the match, the pace of the game slowed down a bit even though the Blues still dominated. Chelsea moves to the top of the table at the end of the round.
GROUP B
The French champions in the Parc des Princes were taken up by the footballers of the famous Real Madrid. Both teams have won their two previous matches so far, which gives them a full set of points to start the tournament. Real, despite a weaker stance in the Spanish league, is doing great in Europe. Los Blancas finally started scoring in the Primera Iberdrola, but these were modest victories against the teams from the bottom of the table. The French champions, on the other hand, show equal form in the national and European backyards. In the French league, they won all matches without conceding a goal. Therefore, Tuesday evening at the Parc des Princes was going to be very interesting. From the first whistle on the pitch of the Paris stadium, the home team tried to take over the initiative. The Parisians played the ball patiently, but they had to maintain full concentration in the defense. In the tenth minute, the locals were close to opening the result of the clash, but the referee decided that the ball after Amanda Ilestedt's shot did not cross the entire perimeter of the goal line. Two minutes later, there was no doubt that Marie-Antoinette Katoto had passed Real's goalie and placed the ball firmly in the net. In the following minutes, the picture of the game did not change much, it was Les Parisiens who prevailed and dictated the conditions of the game.
The one-goal lead did not satisfy the French champions and PSG added a second goal before the break. After a lot of confusion in the penalty area, Sara Dabritz from close range only had to put her foot on the ball and enjoy her fifth goal this season. The home side went to the locker room with a well-deserved lead in the clash against the colorless Real, who in the first installment did not manage to give a single shot at the home team's goal. Madrid found itself in even more trouble on the 53rd minute when a Dabritz cross from the penalty spot swapped PSG's first goal scorer Marie-Antoinette Katoto. The cup of bitterness was poured out by Rocia Galvez's own goal, who ten minutes later, in a harmless situation, threw the ball into her own goal. The visitors from Madrid could not even afford a consolation goal and in the clash of the two best teams from group B, the Parisian players were on top.
The second duel on Tuesday evening in group B is the fight for third place at the halfway point of the group stage. Ukrainian Zytłobud-1 in Kharkiv was taken by Breidablik. Both teams in this edition have not scored yet, the Icelanders have conceded one goal more, so before this match, they were in the last position. The meeting in Kharkiv did not bring many emotions, nor did it bring any goals. Both teams split the points after a goalless draw. Despite the dominance in possession of the ball and a greater number of created opportunities to score, the Ukrainian Żytłobud-1 did not hit the opponents' goal. Therefore, the situation in the group table did not change, and Żytłobud-1 maintained the third position.