Best games of the 2024/25 Women's Champions League: Which is your favourite?

The 2024/25 UEFA Women's Champions League produced more than its share of dramatic matches.

UEFA.com picks out ten of the best. Vote for your favourite.

Chelsea 3-2 Real Madrid

08/10/2024, Group B Matchday 1

For the third year running, Chelsea and Madrid met in the group stage, and while the Blues kept up their perfect home record against the Spanish side, it ended up tight. It did not necessarily look that way early on as Sjoeke Nüsken struck almost immediately via a deflected shot, with Guro Reiten adding a penalty before the half-hour to put Chelsea 2-0 up in their first European game under Sonia Bompastor.

However, Alba Redondo pulled one back past Zecira Musovic (who replaced Hannah Hampton minutes before kick-off), and although Mayra Ramírez looped in a header from Lauren James' cross to make it 3-1 early in the second half, there were more twists to come.

Just past the hour, Madrid brought on Linda Caicedo, whose minutes were being managed after playing two summer tournaments for Colombia. Her determined running and trickery so nearly turned the game as she pulled one back with six minutes left, and she was prominent in a grandstand finish that, if it did not produce an equaliser, gave notice that Madrid had every chance of avoiding a third straight group exit. Indeed, they progressed alongside Chelsea with two games to spare.

Bayern München 5-2 Arsenal

09/10/2024, Group C Matchday 1

Not all London clubs had such a happy time on Matchday 1. Arsenal, a year after a surprise qualifying exit, had seen off Rangers, Rosenborg and Häcken to ensure a group stage return, and having been handed an away game against the top seeds on Matchday 1, were perhaps dreaming of a repeat of their stunning 5-1 opening success at Lyon in 2022/23. Instead, Bayern were the team celebrating five goals.

Bayern had exited in the group stage last season and maybe feared the worst when Mariona Caldentey gave Arsenal the lead. But Glódís Viggósdóttir headed Bayern level before half-time and Sydney Lohmann put them 2-1 up.

Although Laia Codina equalised, Pernille Harder then came to the fore with a stunning 14-minute hat-trick. "The last few years have been tough with injuries, so now I'm just happy to be back playing in the Champions League," she told UEFA.

Manchester City 2-0 Barcelona

09/10/2024, Group D Matchday 1

Man City were finally making their group stage debut after twice falling in qualifying to Real Madrid – not their first exits to teams from Spain – and were taking on a Barcelona side starting as favourites to win a third straight title. However, come full time, City had become the first club to beat Barcelona by more than one goal since Bayern in December 2022.

City took the game to the visitors from the start, and though Ewa Pajor had a shot cleared off the line by Laia Aleixandri, the home pressure told when Naomi Layzell slid in her first senior goal on 36 minutes. Barcelona pushed for an equaliser, Aleixandri producing further goal-line heroics, but victory was sealed when Layzell sent Khadija Shaw clear and the striker calmly rounded Cata Coll to roll in the clincher.

Barcelona would pip an injury-hit City to first place with a 3-0 Matchday 6 victory, yet this night will live long in the memory for the Manchester club after several years of European frustration.

Wolfsburg 6-1 Roma

11/12/2024, Group A Matchday 5

After two games in Group A, Wolfsburg found themselves a maximum six points adrift of the leading pair, having lost 1-0 at Roma and 2-0 at home to Lyon. By kick-off on Matchday 5, the two-time champions had caught the Serie A side, but Wolfsburg still needed a two-goal margin of victory against Roma to clinch qualification and not leave it to the final games, when the German club would visit Lyon and their rivals for second place were to host Galatasaray.

On Matchday 6 in 2021/22, Wolfsburg had needed a two-goal win against Chelsea and ended up striking twice early in a 4-0 victory. Three years on, Alex Popp scored on six minutes, but it was still 1-0 at half-time, and before the hour Valentina Giacinti equalised.

However, Lineth Beerensteyn made it 2-1, and within three minutes Sveindís Jónsdóttir had earned Wolfsburg the two-goal cushion they required. Incredibly, in the last five minutes, the Iceland winger was to add three more, to equal the record goal tally by a player in a single group game and send Wolfsburg to the quarter-finals.

Arsenal 3-2 Bayern München

18/12/2024, Group C Matchday 6

Having been held 1-1 at Vålerenga, Bayern led Arsenal by one rather than three points ahead of the group decider, meaning any win would suffice for the Gunners to overtake their visitors – rather than having to at least match the German side's 5-2 margin of victory from Matchday 1.

Arsenal promptly led inside seven minutes when Viggósdóttir, a Matchday 1 scorer at the other end, headed into her own net. There was more drama to come. Bayern's Magdalena Eriksson – who had never before scored more than once in a senior club game – equalised before half-time, and on 58 minutes she struck again. Within seconds, though, Alessia Russo's cushioned volley restored parity to set up a grandstand finish in driving rain.

Bayern were still closing in on winning their group for the first time until, with four minutes left, a Tuva Hansen handball meant a penalty to be taken by Mariona, who had put Arsenal in front against Bayern on Matchday 1 before that game turned. Mariona duly converted to give Arsenal victory and first place.

Arsenal 3-0 Real Madrid

26/03/2025, Quarter-final second leg

When Athenea del Castillo put Madrid 2-0 up late in the first leg, they seemed well placed to reach their maiden semi-final. Only once in UEFA women's club competition had a team overturned a two-goal deficit in the return of a tie from the last eight onwards, Arsenal themselves achieving that against Torres Terra Sarda in 2004/05.

However, thanks to the Gunners overhauling Bayern in their group, the English hopefuls had home advantage in the second leg, even if they could not turn their first-half dominance into goals. That all changed in the first minute of the second half, when Russo turned in a cross from Chloe Kelly, a January loan arrival from Man City.

Three minutes later, Kelly was again the creator for Mariona to head an equaliser, and before the hour mark Russo half-volleyed her second goal of the night. Caicedo had a late effort saved by Daphne van Domselaar, but Arsenal held firm to emulate their quarter-final comeback feat of two decades earlier.

Chelsea 3-0 Manchester City

27/03/2025, Quarter-final second leg

There were 21 years between the first two-goal second-leg comeback in a UEFA women's club quarter-final and the next. The gap between the second and third was 24 hours, after two second-half goals by substitute Vivianne Miedema in the first leg had given Man City the same 2-0 margin of victory they managed against Barcelona.

Either side of that match, Chelsea had beaten their domestic rivals in the League Cup final and the WSL by 2-1 scorelines. But, in the fourth of their consecutive meetings, a bigger win was required.

Whereas Arsenal's three goals the night before came after the break, Chelsea were 3-0 up by half-time. Sandy Baltimore struck first, pouncing when fellow full-back Lucy Bronze had hit the post on 14 minutes. Another defender, Nathalie Björn, headed in a Baltimore corner in the 38th minute and James then set up Ramírez. There was no way back for City.

Chelsea 1-4 Barcelona

27/04/2025, Semi-final second leg

Chelsea's victory against City set up a third straight semi-final with Barcelona, and there was optimism that their superb form under Bompastor would mean they could prevail after 2-1 aggregate defeats in both previous ties. Barcelona, who had knocked out Wolfsburg 10-2 on aggregate in their quarter-final, had other ideas, winning the first leg 4-1 against the Blues, having only led 1-0 with 20 minutes to go.

Still, a comeback was not out of the question, but unlike in the previous round, Chelsea were 3-0 down at half-time at Stamford Bridge, Barcelona producing a spell of football scintillating even by their standards as Aitana Bonmati, Pajor and Clàudia Pina all struck.

Salma Paralluelo's 90th-minute lob was followed by a Wieke Kaptein consolation as Barcelona reached a record-equalling fifth straight final, eliminating Chelsea again after what Blaugrana coach Pere Romeu told UEFA was "a tie that came close to perfection".

Lyon 1-4 Arsenal

27/04/2025, Semi-final second leg

Another appearance for Arsenal in this list, reflecting their record-breaking run to the final in which they played an unprecedented 14 matches and became the only team in competition history to overturn three first-leg deficits in the same season – against Häcken in qualifying round 2, Madrid in the last eight and then, most sensationally, Lyon in this semi.

OL had won the first leg 2-1 in north London, leaving the Gunners needing an away victory against a side yet to lose over 90 minutes since Joe Montemurro had taken over as coach the previous summer.

Arsenal, though, were level on aggregate within five minutes when a Lyon mix-up after a corner led to a Christiane Endler own goal. With Kim Little and Mariona pulling the strings in midfield, the visitors took control – and the Spanish international put them ahead in the tie just before half-time with an effort from distance.

Russo then fired Arsenal further in front just after the restart, and Caitlin Foord's 63rd-minute goal added to the scoreline before Melchie Dumornay pulled one back. Arsenal became only the second team to score four or more against Lyon in their 152 European games – after the Gunners' own 5-1 group stage win in 2022/23.

Arsenal 1-0 Barcelona

24/05/2025, Final (Lisbon)

Arsenal's 15th game of their European campaign was yet another memorable occasion, even for a final. It did not have the free-flowing drama of the previous Lisbon final in 2014, when Wolfsburg beat Tyresö 4-3, but it more than made up for that in tension, providing yet another twist in the Gunners' run.

Arsenal began the game with ambition but soon found themselves being pressed back by a Barcelona team aiming for a third straight final victory. It had been 18 years since Arsenal's previous decider, when the north London side had also been outsiders against Umeå but showed grit to produce a 1-0 aggregate triumph. And that scoreline, so iconic in the club's lore, proved lucky for the Gunners again.

They kept out all Barcelona could throw at them and claimed victory 16 minutes from the end when Beth Mead set up fellow substitute Stina Blackstenius. With that, Arsenal became only the second team to shut out the Blaugrana all season, after Man City on Matchday 1.