UEFA Women's Champions League: Players to watch on Matchday 6
Tuesday, December 17, 2024
Article summary
We highlight four goalkeepers with key roles in the last group games.
Article top media content
Article body
The eight UEFA Women's Champions League quarter-finalists are decided but there is plenty of intrigue as the groups end on Tuesday and Wednesday with four first vs second matches, including three direct deciders for top spot and last-eight seeding.
With free-scoring teams going head to head, the goalkeepers will have their work cut out and we look at four more than capable of keeping out Europe's best.
Cata Coll (Barcelona)
Ever since displacing her goalkeeping idol Sandra Paños for both Barcelona and Spain, Coll has been a fixture among the global elite No1s, with FIFA Women's World Cup and UEFA Women's Champions League winners' medals to prove it (and indeed clean sheets in both those finals). Something unusual did happen on Matchday 1 this season, when Manchester City scored twice past Coll in a 2-0 victory that leaves Barcelona needing to match that winning margin on Wednesday to finish above their English visitors.
To put that into perspective, only once before in more than 50 Barcelona appearances had Coll let in multiple goals in a single match (the 4-2 victory against Levante in the Copa de la Reina final in May 2021). But Coll has conceded few goals since and a City side without Khadija Shaw, Vivianne Miedema and Lauren Hemp will need to be at their very best to hope for any sort of repeat.
Christiane Endler (Lyon)
Ten years Coll's senior at 33, Endler has a collection of team and individual trophies that even the young Mallorcan might struggle to match in the coming decade. That includes helping Lyon to victory against Barcelona in the 2022 Champions League final and, three seasons on, OL are hungry for a ninth European title.
Chile goalkeeper Endler, who joined from Paris Saint-Germain in 2021, displacing Lyon legend Sarah Bouhaddi, has been just about the gold standard for goalkeeping in this decade and this season alone is into double figures for clean sheets, including in four of Lyon's five Champions League wins. She will aim to add to that tally when old rivals Wolfsburg visit on Tuesday.
Zecira Musovic (Chelsea)
Ever since Musovic arrived at Chelsea from Rosengård at the end of 2020 (inheriting compatriot Sweden legend Hedvig Lindahl's No1 shirt) she has been used to world-class competition for the right to start, particularly from Ann-Katrin Berger and more recently Hannah Hampton. Under Emma Hayes that often meant rotation while this season Sonia Bompastor has followed a strict path: Hampton in the Women's Super League, Musovic in the Champions League.
All five of Musovic's appearances have resulted in wins, and on Tuesday they go to Real Madrid with Chelsea knowing that they will top the group as long as they avoid defeat. Madrid have hit 19 goals in their five group matches (11 in their two home games) but Musovic, a superb shot-stopper and confident cross-collector, has been repaying Bompastor's European confidence in her.
Ayaka Yamashita (Manchester City)
City have also been rotating their goalkeepers this season but in the biggest games experienced Japanese international Yamashita has been getting the nod over Khiara Keating. The 29-year-old arrived from INAC Kobe Leonessa this summer, made her debut in the Champions League round 2 tie with Paris FC (a 5-0 win), and underlined her credentials with the clean sheet in the 2-0 win against Barcelona.
Yamashita is the only keeper to shut out Barcelona this season and in fact is yet to concede in her four Champions League appearances (in addition to three WSL clean sheets in six games). But that is in keeping with her trophy-laden career.