Rivals go head-to-head in Women's Champions League quarter-finals
Monday, March 23, 2026
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Rivals OL Lyonnes and Wolfsburg, Arsenal and Chelsea, and Barcelona and Real Madrid are set to face each in the UEFA Women's Champions League quarter-finals.
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Some of women's football's longstanding rivalries will resume in the 2025/26 UEFA Women's Champions League quarter-finals.
OL Lyonnes against Wolfsburg will become the competition's most-played fixture, and all-London and all-Spanish encounters will pit domestic competitors against each other.
The latest episode of Plugged In, presented by Euronics, delves into the history behind the fixtures that will decide who contests this season's semi-finals.
Wolfsburg vs OL Lyonnes
These sides have met in four Women's Champions League finals, and previously faced each other 11 times in UEFA competition.
Among those finals were Wolfsburg's first title win in 2012/13, and a dramatic showpiece settled by a penalty shoot-out won by OL Lyonnes in 2015/16.
The French team also won the two other finals, with all five goals in the 2017/18 decider scored in extra time of a 4-1 victory followed by a 3-1 triumph in 2019/20.
The second leg of this quarter-final will be their 13th meeting, overtaking OL Lyonnes vs Paris Saint Germain as the most-played fixture in the competition's history.
OL Lyonnes lead the head-to-heads, with eight wins to Wolfsburg’s two and one draw. The She-Wolves will hope to halt a run of seven straight defeats to the French champions – including their 3-1 loss on Matchday 3 of this season's league phase.
Arsenal vs Chelsea
The only two English clubs to have reached a Women's Champions League final will meet for the first time on the European stage.
Situated on opposite sides of London, Arsenal and Chelsea have a longstanding domestic rivalry and their fixtures are usually full of passion, drama and moments of brilliance.
Last season, the Blues won both their domestic encounters. But in January, the Gunners beat them in the Women's Super League for the first time since 2018/19 with a 2-0 victory at Stamford Bridge.
Arsenal have won three and Chelsea eight domestic league titles since the Women's Super League's introduction in 2011. However, the north London outfit remain the only English team to have won the Women's Champions League, after lifting the trophy for the second time last term.
Real Madrid vs Barcelona
Both sides should field several Spain internationals – recent UEFA Women's Nations League winners and UEFA Women's EURO runners-up – in what will be a second Women's Champions League quarter-final between the pair; they also met in the last eight in 2021/22, Barcelona winning 3-1 away and 5-2 in front of 91,553 spectators at Camp Nou.
Barcelona have dominated this fixture in domestic competitions, winning the first 18 instalments of the rivalry. Madrid ended that streak by defeating them for the first time a year ago, but Barça won their most recent contest 4-0 in last month's Copa de la Reina quarter-finals.
Las Blancas have not yet been beyond the Women's Champions League quarter-finals, whereas Barcelona have been in six of the last seven finals, winning three of them.
Manchester United vs Bayern München
With this being the first season that Manchester United have progressed through Women's Champions League qualifying, these teams are set to face each other for the first time.
One of the debutant club's forwards will be familiar with the opposition though: Lea Schüller joined Man United from Bayern just two months ago.
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