Birkirkara women discover Champions League's opponent

Birkirkara women’s team has been handed a tough draw in the first round of the UEFA Women’s Champions League as they were pitted with Scotland giants Glasgow City in one of Group 2 semi-finals. In their second group game, the Maltese representatives will face one between Kazakhstan’s WFC BIIK-Shymkent or SK Slovan Bratislava of Slovakia. Round 1 is one of two rounds before the new 16-team group stage, which begins in October. It will be split into two paths: the champions path and the league path. In both paths, round 1 will consist of two stages, each of one-off matches: semi-finals (18 August) and finals/third-place play-offs (21 August). The winners of each final (11 in champions path, four in league path) will progress to round 2. Birkirkara were one of the unseeded teams in Pot 2 of the champions path with Glasgow City among the top seeded teams in Pot 1. The Scottish side are at the back of their 14th domestic title in a row, fending off the challenge of newcomers Celtic and Rangers. Glasgow are a familiar name to Maltese women’s football after Swieqi United had embarked on a historic project with the Scottish giants in the interest of promoting and help growing the women’s game. This will be the third time that Glasgow will face a Maltese side at this stage of the competition after meeting Mosta in 2011 and Birkirkara in 2013. A record 72 teams from 50 different associations will take part in the new-look 2021/22 UEFA Women’s Champions League. The final is scheduled on May 22, at the Juventus Stadium in Torino.