Roma Women begin their second ever Champions League campaign on Wednesday with the first leg of their qualifier against Vorskla Poltava.
After going down the League Path and reaching the quarter-finals last season before bowing out to Barcelona, Roma are this time tasked with navigating a two-legged tie in the Champions Path to reach the group stage for a second consecutive campaign.
Their opponents are Vorskla Poltava from Ukraine, who have come to Italy on the back of strong domestic form that has already included wins by margins such as six, seven, eight, nine, 10 and even 30 (yes, you read that right) this season.
To get to this round of the Champions League, which Roma reached automatically as Scudetto winners, Vorskla had to beat Estonian side Flora and Croatian side Osijek. This is their fourth ever UWCL campaign; they have previously reached the round of 32 in the competition’s old format in 2020-21, but have never got to the group stage or equivalent round of 16. Last season, they were knocked out at this interval by Vllaznia from Albania.
Roma are also in good form, boasting a 100% record from their three games so far in Serie A Femminile, a slightly more balanced division than Vorskla’s seems to be (not to mention higher in the UEFA coefficient).
Most recently, Alessandro Spugna’s side beat Pomigliano 5-0 at the weekend, a game in which new signings Saki Kumagai, Laura Feiersinger, Evelyne Viens and Martina Tomaselli scored. All of them have varying degrees of Champions League experience; Kumagai has gone all the way before five times with Lyon.
There are no notable absentees from Spugna’s squad, so he should have plenty of strong options to choose from.
Due to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, both legs against Vorskla will take place at Roma’s Stadio Tre Fontane base. The first leg is the designated home tie for the Giallorosse.
Wednesday’s game will kick off at 1:30pm UK time and will be streamed live on Roma’s YouTube channel.
Leave a Reply