One-sided victories for the top sides in Europe’s best leagues prove their strength but also highlight how financial differences are already distorting women’s game

The winter-scheduled FA Women’s Super League 1 kicks off on 22 September with Everton – chosen to replace Notts County, who have folded, in the top flight – hosting the 2013 and 2014 league winners Liverpool. The Merseyside derby will be shown on BT Sport.

Last weekend, though, France, Germany and Spain welcomed the start of their 2017-18 seasons, providing the first chance to look at how the giants of European football have strengthened and to see some of the major players of Euro 2017 back in action for their clubs.

In France the England right-back Lucy Bronze made her much-anticipated debut for the European champions, Lyon. Bronze, having missed out on pre-season, lasted 60 minutes and provided the assist for Ada Hegerberg’s second goal before being taken off as Lyon put seven past Rodez.

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Hegerburg announced on 29 August that she was taking a break from international duties with Norway, who lost all three of their matches at Euro 17 without scoring, having become disillusioned with the Norwegian Football Federation’s support for the women’s team. The 22-year-old’s decision has rocked women’s football in her home country but her four goals, including a first-half hat-trick, in Lyon’s league opener showed the drama off the pitch has not affected her focus on it.

Lyon will this season be without Orlando Pride’s Alex Morgan, after she chose not to extend her stay in Europe, and Pauline Bremer, who moved to Manchester City as part of Bronze’s deal, but they have added the Euro 2017 winner Shanice van de Sanden from Liverpool to strengthen their hopes of winning the Champions League for a third consecutive season.

Their fellow Champions League finalists Paris Saint-Germain perhaps provided the sole shock of the weekend, drawing 1-1 at home to Soyaux, whom they beat by two goals in both meetings last season. Finishing third in the league has meant PSG unexpectedly missed out on a Champions League, with the league runners-up, Montpellier, joining Lyon in Europe’s premier cup competition. PSG will be hoping to remedy that by challenging for the title. They have recruited Barcelona’s top scorer Jenni Hermoso, along with the Rosengard captain and defender Emma Berglund and the Chilean goalkeeper Christiane Engler.

Montpellier demonstrated they have no intention of relinquishing their Champions League berth, matching Lyon’s tally with a 7-0 win over SSPTT Albi. “LouLou” adorned the backs of every Montpellier shirt as the team paid tribute to the recently deceased club president Louis Nicollin. La Paillade have recruited heavily, with the striker Stina Blackstenius joining from the Swedish side Linkopings FC, where she scored 39 goals in 79 appearances, and other recruits including Katrine Veje from Western New York Flash and Janice Cayman from Paris FC.

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Paris FC, who were called Juvisy before they were adopted by the Ligue 2 men’s club and moved from amateur to professional in the process, inflicted a 5-1 drubbing on promoted Fleury 91, whose fellow Division 1 Féminine newcomer Lille put three past Bordeaux, who narrowly avoided relegation last season.

Toni Duggan had to wait a little longer than her former Manchester City team-mate Bronze to make her first appearance for her new side. The Barcelona forward watched from the bench alongside Uefa’s player of the year Lieke Martens until the 68th minute, but she made the most of her time on the pitch, rounding the goalkeeper 10 minutes after her introduction before coolly sliding the ball in from a tight angle. Duggan’s goal completed a 9-0 rout of Zaragoza in which Marta Torrejón, Alexia Putellas and Andressa Alves each scored twice.

Barcelona are keen to reassert themselves having finished second in the league for the past two seasons after they had won the preceding four La Liga titles. Alongside the marquee signings mentioned above they have brought in a lot of experience, with the Champions League trophy on their radar. The French midfielder Élise Bussaglia, formerly of PSG, Lyon and Wolfsburg (among others) has joined along with PSG’s Natasa Andonova and Atlético Madrid’s league-winning defender María Pilar León. Barça’s dealings have been seen as a statement of intent, showing they are serious about propelling their women’s team into Europe’s elite and extending brand Barcelona beyond the men’s game.

Atlético, the reigning champions, came from a goal behind to beat Albacete 3-1. Five players made their debuts for Atléti, including the Champions League winner Aurélie Kaci from Lyon. The promoted teams, Madrid (no connection to Real) and Sevilla, held their own, the former earning a 1-1 draw with Levante after conceding in the second minute and Sevilla losing 2-1 thanks to a late winner from Sporting de Huelva.

In the Frauen Bundesliga last season’s champions, Wolfsburg, and runners-up, Bayern Munich, made strong starts. Double winners Wolfsburg (whose end-of-season celebrations were cruelly sidelined until 3 September as the men’s team battled relegation) beat Hoffenheim 6-0. The Denmark captain Pernille Harder, recruited from Linkopings FC at the start of the year, scored twice.

Bayern, knocked out of the Champions League by PSG at the semi-final stage last season, saw off Essens with a 3-0 win, with the newly recruited Czech striker Lucie Vonkova getting the second goal after last season’s Bundesliga top scorer, Mandy Islacker, scored the opener. Both German sides have been dealt tough Champions League ties, Wolfsburg facing Atlético and Bayern drawing Chelsea and domestic success could very quickly be left as the season’s focus.

The two sides joining the top tier this season were introduced to the reality of life in the Bundesliga, Köln losing 2-0 to Frankfurt and Werder Bremen 3-0 to Sand.

There are exciting players and teams to watch in these leagues, with no guaranteed title winners. However with all of these top sides, bar PSG, securing such emphatic wins – 7-0, 7-0, 9-0, 3-0, 6-0 – it’s hard not to consider the relationship between uneven growth and competitiveness in European women’s football. More and more clubs are taking their women’s teams seriously. There are huge commercial opportunities within the women’s game. That investment and consideration should be welcomed, but as clubs pump their sides at the top with resources, making for an increasingly exciting and competitive Champions League, the gap between the top and bottom of domestic leagues is getting bigger.

How football associations balance encouraging growth and investment with maintaining competitiveness and level, or at least closer, development will be an essential task in their attempts to grow the game in their respective domestic leagues.









Talking points





• The England internationals Izzy Christiansen and Jill Scott have signed new contracts with Manchester City. Both have been at the club since 2014 and were key components of Nick Cushing’s side who won the league and League Cup double in 2016. They reached the Euro 2017 semi-final with England, where they lost 3-0 to the hosts, Holland.

• The Arsenal and England right-back Alex Scott has announced her retirement from international football. Scott, who made her debut against Holland in 2004 (the team she played her last game against), is England’s second most capped player, behind her former Arsenal team-mate Fara Williams, and has 12 goals for her country. She won silver at Euro 2009 and bronze at the 2015 Women’s World Cup in Canada. Scott, a pioneer of women’s football on and off the pitch, explained her decision in an emotional video: “My dream as a little girl playing in that football cage in the East End of London was to one day pull on the Three Lions shirt and represent my country. I am so proud and humbled that I managed to do just that.”

• USA and Germany held on to the top two spots respectively in the Fifa world rankings released on Friday. England jumped to an all-time high of third after their semi-final finish in the Netherlands. Holland have shot up five places to seventh after winning the Euros.

• The draw for the last 32 of the women’s Champions League ties has been made. Most notably, Manchester City travel to Austria to play Polten, and Chelsea were excitingly drawn against last season’s Bundesliga runners-up, Bayern Munich. Glasgow City’s players face a long distance and financially difficult trip to Kazakhstan’s BIIK-Kazygurt. The holders, Lyon, should sail past Poland’s Medyk Konin but the semi-finalists Wolfsburg have a tricky tie against the La Liga champions, Atlético Madrid. The two legs will take place over the 4-5 and 11-12 October.

• Portland Thorns became the second team in the US NWSL to secure a play-off place, with a 4-0 win over Washington Spirit. North Carolina Courage are top of the table and have confirmed a spot in the play-offs but missed out on the chance to grab a home play-off game, losing 2-1 to Chicago Red Stars. A win over Houston Dash would secure that advantage. Chicago and Orlando Pride sit level on points in third and fourth place respectively (Chicago in front thanks to their head-to-head record against Orlando). They are five points clear of Seattle Reign in fifth and six clear of Sky Blue in sixth, with three games to play, and the chance they could drop out of the play-off places makes for an exciting run-in.