UEFA Women's Champions League: Players to watch on Matchday 5

The penultimate set of UEFA Women's Champions League group games are on Wednesday and Thursday with 13 of the 16 contenders still yet to confirm their fate. We focus on four players with key roles to play in their clubs' quarter-final ambitions.

Laura Freigang (Eintracht Frankfurt)

Trailing Benfica by three points, Frankfurt need to do what only one team (Chelsea) have done in the 2020s and avoid defeat away at Barcelona, to even have a chance of aiming at a quarter-final place on Matchday 6. But Frankfurt can take hope from the first half of their home game on Matchday 1 in November, where they went in 1-0 up. Barcelona were to win 3-1 but the header from Freigang (the only goal the Blaugrana conceded between 21 October and 6 January) showed that Frankfurt could pose a threat and particularly through their 25-year-old striker, who has been with the club since 2018.

Freigang's eye for goal on the big occasion, including her double in a crucial 4-0 defeat of Wolfsburg last season, had her linked in the media to some of Europe's biggest clubs, including Barcelona. She stayed loyal to Frankfurt, hit a qualifying hat-trick against Sparta Praha, and after the heartbreak of seeing her late penalty saved in the draw with Benfica, Freigang will be even more determined to again find a way past Barcelona.

Signe Gaupset (Brann)

The talent of 18-year-old box-to-box midfielder Gaupset has long been known – she has been a Brann regular for the last two seasons and starred in the 2022 Norwegian Cup final – but her reputation grew further after the two encounters with Lyon in December. Gaupset's display in the 3-1 loss in France won praise from both compatriot Ada Hegerberg and OL coach Sonia Bompastor and a week later in Bergen, the teenager scored an equaliser deep in added time to complete a sensational comeback from two down to earn Brann a point.

Brann, the only one of the teams in the group stage never to have made the last 16 before in any format, are now on the verge of the quarter-finals. That could be booked by avoiding defeat at Slavia Praha on Thursday and Gaupset's tireless play in winning the ball deep, launching attacks and, as against Lyon, even finishing them off have been crucial to Brann's rise to European prominence.

Gaëtane Thiney (Paris FC)

Before Gaupset had even been born in June 2005, Thiney had helped France beat Norway to win the 2003 WU19 EURO and become a top-flight regular with Saint-Memmie Olympique. With Paris (previously known as Juvisy) since 2008, Thiney at 38 remains an inspirational attacking midfielder and a potent threat in front of goal; she ended 2023 by scoring in Paris's last four games of the year including the home and away Champions League defeats of Real Madrid (including a nerveless Panenka penalty to decide the 1-0 victory in Spain) that got them right back in the Group D running.

Paris still lie third, and a result in Sweden against Häcken on Thursday is likely needed to keep Thiney's side in contention ahead of the concluding visit of Chelsea. But Thiney, who helped Juvisy to the quarter-finals twice early in the last decade, has thrived on her return to the top European stage and having helped Paris see off Arsenal and Wolfsburg to reach the group stage, could spearhead a further advance.

Evelyne Viens (Roma)

Briefly a Paris FC player in 2020/21 and subsequently with Kristianstad, Canadian forward Viens joined Roma last summer and was soon finding the target, not least with the goal that sparked the comeback from two down to draw 2-2 at Bayern on Matchday 1 in Group C. Roma host Bayern on Thursday bottom of the group but only three points off first place,

The 2021 Olympic gold medallist was on a rich vein of form coming into the first Bayern game and Viens will hope to recapture that shape in the rematch to keep Roma in a decent position to get through the toughest and tightest of sections.