Women’s Champions League draw: What you need to know!

On Friday Roma Women will find out their opponents as they participate in European competition for the first time ever...

Alessandro Spugna's side qualified for the UEFA club competition - the only one currently running in the women's game - thanks to a best-ever second place finish in Serie A last season, as they also reached the final of the Coppa Italia.

The 2022-23 edition of the competition will be the second that follows a new format, one that comprises of an initial knockout stage ('Round 1' & 'Round 2') before the main group stage (of 16 teams) gets underway in October.

At 13:00 CEST on Friday afternoon the draw for this preliminary phase will take place. It is divided into two parts.

ROUND 1

Qualifying for Rounds 1 & 2 will be split into two sections: the champions path and the league path.

In both paths, Round 1 will consist of two stages, each of one-off knockout matches played in single-venue mini-tournaments: semi-finals (18 August) and finals (21 August).

The winners of each final (11 in the champions path, four in the league path) will progress to Round 2, where 24 teams will compete for the last 12 slots in the group stage alongside holders Lyon and fellow direct entrants Barcelona, Chelsea and Wolfsburg.

The hosts of the knockout mini-tournaments will be confirmed from among the clubs in each group.

For the unlucky Round 1 semi-final losers, a third-place play-off will also take place on the same day as the scheduled finals.

ROUND 2

The ties for Round 2 - 12 of them in total - will be drawn on September 1, with the winners decided over a two-legged affair (home and away matches).

These matches are scheduled for September 20/21 and September 28/29.

The winners of each tie will take their place in the main group stage of the competition.

POTENTIAL OPPONENTS

For Round 1, Roma Women are unseeded due to their UEFA coefficient and will thus face two of the following teams: Manchester City, Glasgow, Fortuna Hjorring, Real Madrid, FC Minsk, Ajax, Breioablik and Paris FC.

The other unseeded teams, which the Giallorosse could potentially come up against in Round 2, include: Eintracht Frankfurt, Servette, Kristianstads DFF, Sturm Graz, Slovacko, Rosenborg and Tomiris-Turan.

You can watch the draw live on UEFA.com!