Women's Champions League: What to look out for on Thursday

The 2023/24 UEFA Women's Champions League group stage continues on Thursday with the last games of the calendar year, and the potential for quarter-finalists to be confirmed.

Barcelona and Lyon look for progress

There have been no shortage of surprise results so far this season but the competition's two current iron horses have been striding on. Barcelona and Lyon, who have won the last eight editions between them, each have a maximum nine points, with 14 goals scored and one conceded, and know victory on Thursday would book a quarter-final spot with two games to spare.

Holders Barça face Rosengård exactly a year on from beating them 6-0 at the Camp Nou, and it was by the same scoreline that they won in Malmö last week. Barcelona ended the match with several teenagers, including three debutants, on the pitch, and while the Camp Nou is not available this season, the swashbuckling football that reclaimed them the title in 2022/23 certainly is. On Monday, coach Jonatan Giráldez announced that he would leave at the end of the season, having been Champions League runner-up in his first campaign in charge of 2021/22 before victory last term.

Lyon moved three points clear of Brann last week with a 3-1 home win, the visitors' consolation actually the first group goal OL had conceded since Matchday 2 last season. Another victory would not just confirm Lyon's progress but also first place –something they missed out on a year ago ahead of suffering a quarter-final exit at Chelsea. Brann, though, will have hopes of their own, not least after the impressive display of 17-year-old Signe Gaupset at Lyon, and Andrine Hegerberg, after recovering from a long-term injury, could potentially play some part against sister Ada.

Frankfurt aim to better Benfica

While Barcelona seem to be running away with Group A, even if top spot cannot be confirmed on Thursday, the race for second place between Benfica and Frankfurt is intense. Benfica took a three-point lead last week with a hard-fought home win courtesy of Marie Alidou's 71st-minute goal, and hold out hope of clinching a maiden quarter-final with victory at Stadion am Brentanobad.

Four-time winners in their previous guise as FFC Frankfurt, Eintracht have different ideas as they continue their debut campaign in the modern group stage. In the days when Frankfurt were dominating the competition, the idea they might have a European run ended by a Portuguese club was fanciful, but Benfica have been changing all that.

Still, after losing at Estádio do SL Benfica in the first Women's Champions League game to be played there, Frankfurt coach Nico Arnautis said: "[At home] the atmosphere will like here, but in our favour. It will be a new game and we have a big challenge. I think we have the quality to win."

Briefing notes

• St. Pölten and Slavia's goalless draw in Austria left both still two points behind Brann in Group A and each know victory in Prague is paramount regardless of the result of the other game in Norway.