The 2025–26 UEFA Women's Champions League was the 25th edition of the European women's club football championship organised by UEFA, and the 17th edition since being rebranded as the UEFA Women's Champions League. It started on 30 July 2025 and ended with the final on 23 May 2026. This was the first season under a new format, which had 18 participating teams, playing six games each against different opponents in a league phase, all in a joint group. The winners automatically qualified for the 2026–27 UEFA Women's Champions League league phase, the 2027 FIFA Women's Champions Cup semi-finals and the 2028 FIFA Women's Club World Cup. Video assistant referee (VAR) was used from the league phase onwards.
The Ullevaal Stadion in Oslo hosted the final. Barcelona won the match 4–0 against OL Lyonnes for their fourth title.
Arsenal were the defending champions, but were eliminated by OL Lyonnes in the semi-finals.
Association team allocation The association ranking based on the UEFA women's country coefficients was used to determine the number of participating teams for each association: Associations 1–7 each had three teams qualify. Associations 8–17 each had two teams qualify. All other associations, if they entered, each had one team qualify. The winners of the 2024–25 UEFA Women's Champions League were given an additional entry if they did not qualify for the 2025–26 UEFA Women's Champions League through their domestic league.
An association had to have an eleven-a-side women's domestic league to enter a team. As of 2019–20, 52 of the 55 UEFA member associations had organized a women's domestic league, with the exceptions being Andorra (1 club in Spain), Liechtenstein (3 clubs in Switzerland) and San Marino (1 club in Italy).
Association ranking For the 2025–26 UEFA Women's Champions League, the associations were allocated places according to their 2024 UEFA women's Association coefficients, which took into account their performance in European competitions from 2019–20 to 2023–24.
Apart from the allocation based on association coefficients, associations could have additional teams participating in the Champions League, as noted below: – Additional berth for UEFA Women's Champions League title holders
+Association ranking for 2025–26 UEFA Women's Champions LeagueRankAssociationCoeff.TeamsNotes178.3333268.999368.166459.999534.000634.000724.999822.3322922.0001021.7501121.5001221.2501319.0001418.0001517.7501617.0001714.7501814.25011914.000RankAssociationCoeff.TeamsNotes2014.00012112.0002212.0002310.25002410.00012510.000269.500279.000289.000299.000308.500318.500328.000338.000347.500357.000367.000377.000RankAssociationCoeff.TeamsNotes387.0001396.500406.500416.000426.000435.500445.500455.500465.500474.500484.000494.000503.000——0———
Distribution Teams entering in this roundTeams advancing from the previous roundFirst roundChampions Path(21 teams) 21 champions from associations 30 and 32–51Second roundChampions Path(28 teams) 21 champions from associations 7–11 and 13–29 (except Russia) 1 champion from association 31 as the team with the highest club coefficient, originally from the Round 1 6 mini-tournament winners from the first roundLeague Path(15 teams) 11 runners-up from associations 6 and 8–17 4 third-placed teams from associations 4–7Third roundChampions Path(8 teams) 1 champion from association 12 as the team with the highest club coefficient, originally from the Round 2 of the Champions Path 7 mini-tournament winners from the second roundLeague Path(10 teams) 2 runners-up from associations 3 and 5 3 third-placed teams from associations 1–3 1 runner-up from association 7 as the team with the highest club coefficient, originally from the Round 2 of the League Path 4 mini-tournament winners from the second roundLeague phase(18 teams) UEFA Women's Champions League title holder 6 champions from associations 1–6 2 runners-up from associations 1–2 4 winners from the third round (Champions Path) 5 winners from the third round (League Path)Knockout phase play-offs(8 teams) 8 teams ranked 5–12 from the league phaseQuarter-finals(8 teams) 4 teams ranked 1–4 from the league phase 4 winners from the knockout phase play-offs Due to the suspension of Russia, the following changes to the access list were made:
The champions of associations 29 (Poland) entered the second qualifying round (Champions Path) instead of the first qualifying round (Champions Path).
As the Champions League title holders (Arsenal) qualified for the third qualifying round (League Path) via their domestic league's standard berth allocation, the following changes to the default access list were made:
BK Häcken as the club with the highest club coefficient that would otherwise have entered the second qualifying round (League Path), entered the third qualifying round (League Path) instead.
Since this season marked the inaugural edition of the UEFA Women's Europa Cup, with no title holders from previous season, the following changes to the default access list were made:
St. Pölten as the club with the highest club coefficient that would otherwise have entered the second qualifying round (Champions Path), entered the third qualifying round (Champions Path). Gintra as the club with the highest club coefficient that would otherwise have entered the first qualifying round (Champions Path), entered the second qualifying round (Champions Path).
Teams The labels in the parentheses show how each team qualified for the place of its starting round:
TH: Title holders 1st, 2nd, 3rd: League positions of the previous season
Two qualifying rounds, round 2 and round 3, were divided into Champions Path (CH) and League Path (LP). +Qualified teams for 2025–26 UEFA Women's Champions LeagueEntry roundTeamsLeague phase Arsenal 2nd OL Lyonnes Paris Saint-Germain Bayern Munich VfL Wolfsburg Barcelona Chelsea Benfica Juventus Round 3 St. Pölten Paris FC Eintracht Frankfurt Real Madrid Atlético Madrid Sporting CP BK Häcken Round 2 Rosengård Slavia Prague Twente Fortuna Hjørring Vålerenga Vorskla Poltava Dinamo Minsk Breiðablik Hibernian BIIK Shymkent Young Boys Red Star Belgrade Vllaznia Apollon Ladies OH Leuven HJK SFK 2000 Ferencváros Farul Constanța Mura GKS Katowice Gintra Manchester United Braga Inter Milan Roma Hammarby IF Sparta Prague PSV Eindhoven Nordsjælland Brann Austria Wien Metalist 1925 Kharkiv FC Minsk Valur Glasgow City Aktobe Round 1 Agram Athlone Town Mitrovica ABB Fomget AEK Athens Kiryat Gat Lanchkhuti Budućnost Podgorica Spartak Myjava NSA Sofia Racing Union Cardiff City Flora Cliftonville Riga FC Swieqi United Agarista Anenii Noi Ljuboten NSÍ Runavík Pyunik Neftçi Notes
Schedule The schedule of the competition was as follows.
+PhaseRoundDraw dateFirst legSecond legQualifyingFirst qualifying round24 June 202530 July 2025 (semi-finals)2 August 2025 (third-place play-off & final)Second qualifying round27 August 2025 (semi-finals)30 August 2025 (third-place play-off & final)Third qualifying round31 August 202511 September 202518 September 2025League phaseMatchday 119 September 20257–8 October 2025Matchday 215–16 October 2025Matchday 311–12 November 2025Matchday 419–20 November 2025Matchday 59–10 December 2025Matchday 617 December 2025Knockout phaseKnockout phase play-offs18 December 202511–12 February 202618–19 February 2026Quarter-finals24–25 March 20261–2 April 2026Semi-finalsrowspan="2" 25–26 April 20262–3 May 2026Final23 May 2026 at Ullevaal Stadion, Oslo
Qualifying rounds
First qualifying round Champions Path
Tournament 1
Tournament 2
Tournament 3
Tournament 4
Tournament 5
Tournament 6
Second qualifying round Champions Path
Tournament 1
Tournament 2
Tournament 3
Tournament 4
Tournament 5
Tournament 6
Tournament 7
League Path
Tournament 1
Tournament 2
Tournament 3
Tournament 4
Third qualifying round
League phase
The league phase draw for the 2025–26 UEFA Women's Champions League took place on 19 September 2025. The 18 teams were divided into three pots of six teams. Each team faced two opponents from each of the three pots, one at home and one away.
Sweden's Damallsvenskan, despite being one of the strongest leagues in the world, was without any Champions League teams this season for the first time in history, after BK Häcken, Hammarby IF and FC Rosengård were knocked out and sent to the Europa Cup.
Table
Results
Knockout phase
Bracket
Knockout phase play-offs
Quarter-finals
Semi-finals
Final
Statistics Statistics exclude qualifying rounds.
Top goalscorers RankPlayerTeamGoals1 Ewa Pajor Barcelona112 Alessia Russo Arsenal93 Pernille Harder Bayern Munich84 Alexia Putellas Barcelona75 Lineth Beerensteyn VfL Wolfsburg5 Caroline Weir Real Madrid Melchie Dumornay OL Lyonnes Evelyne Viens Roma9 Linda Caicedo Real Madrid4 Esmee Brugts Barcelona Melvine Malard Manchester United Fiamma Benítez Atlético Madrid Caroline Graham Hansen Barcelona Wendie Renard OL Lyonnes Salma Paralluelo Barcelona
Team of the season The UEFA technical study group selected the following players as the team of the tournament.
PlayerTeam Cata Coll Barcelona Emily Fox Arsenal Wendie Renard OL Lyonnes Mapi León Barcelona Selma Bacha OL Lyonnes Melchie Dumornay OL Lyonnes Patricia Guijarro Barcelona Alexia Putellas Barcelona Ewa Pajor Barcelona Pernille Harder Bayern Munich Alessia Russo Arsenal
Player of the season Alexia Putellas ( Barcelona)
Young player of the season Lily Yohannes ( OL Lyonnes)
See also 2025–26 UEFA Women's Europa Cup 2025–26 UEFA Champions League 2025–26 UEFA Europa League 2025–26 UEFA Conference League 2025 UEFA Super Cup 2025–26 UEFA Youth League
References
External links