Football

Women's Champions League: Previous winners, history and records

Updated: 14 Dec 23 13:18

Barcelona Women are the current Women’s Champions League defending champions and are looking to retain the title for a second straight season.

Barcelona Women currently hold two Champions League trophies to their name (2020/2021 and 2022/2023) and currently sit top of Group A.

With a recent 3-1 win over Eintracht Frankfurt and a 5-0 thrashing over Benfica in their opening match, Giraldez’s Barca are by no means slowing down and look set to finish top of their group.

Tournament Structure

The tournament initially emerged as the UEFA Women’s Cup from 2001-2009, before being rebranded as the UEFA Women’s Champions League from 2009 onwards.

The competition has undergone a change in format since 2021; as now the top six associations enter three teams, associations ranked 7-16 enter two and remaining associations enter one.

This restructure was decided upon to mirror the men’s Champions League format, with a double-round-robin group stage and two paths (Champions road and Non-Champions path) for clubs who do not automatically qualify for the group stage.

The competition is set to undergo another restructure from the 2025/2026 season and will feature a league stage consisting of 18 clubs, two more than the current group stage format.

The format change will result in top teams playing against each other more frequently and earlier, with teams experiencing a wider variety of opponents and more competitive matches.

Qualification

Currently, there are two stages of qualification: a first round consisting of four-team mini-tournaments and a second round of two-leg matches. Based on how teams qualified, each of these rounds is divided into two simultaneous paths.

The Champions path consists of the Champions from the top 50 associations and the Non-Champions format consists of second place from the top 16 associations, with seven and five teams advancing respectively.

Group Stages

Includes four teams qualifying directly, the current UWCL Champions and the Champions from the top 3 associations.

The group stages take place in four groups of four, with the top two teams from each group progressing to the quarter-finals.

Most Women’s Champions League titles

Olympique Lyon lead the way with eight titles, with their most recent title win coming in the 2021/2022 season, the first edition of the tournament to feature a 16-team group stage.

Eintracht Frankfurt follow with four titles and two runners-up places, but have failed to feature in the tournament final since 2015, their last campaign win.

Club	Titles	Runners-up	Seasons won	Seasons Runner-up
Lyon	8	2	2011, 2012, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022	2010, 2013
FFC Frankfurt	4	2	2002, 2006, 2008, 2015	2004, 2012
VfL Wolfsburg	2	4	2013, 2014	2016, 2018, 2020, 2023
Umeå IK	2	3	2003, 2004	2002, 2007, 2008
Turbine Potsdam	2	2	2005, 2010	2006, 2011
Barcelona	2	2	2021, 2023	2019, 2022

Most consecutive Women’s Champions League wins

Again it is Olympique Lyon who lead the way here with five titles on the bounce in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020.

Performances in the Women’s Champions League by nation

Nation	Wins	Runners-Up Places
Germany	9	9
France	8	4
Sweden	2	5
Spain	2	2
England	1	1
Denmark	0	1
Russia	0	1

Most finishes in the top four without ever being champion

Paris Saint-Germain are still yet to lift their maiden Women's Champions League trophy having finished in the top four on six occasions (2015, 2016, 2017, 2020, 2021, 2022).

Top tournament scorers

Player:	Goals:	Year:
Ada Hegerberg	15	2017-2018
Célia Šašić	14	2014-2015
Conny Pohlers	14	2004-2005
Margrét Lára Viðarsdóttir	14	2008-2009
Ada Hegerberg	13	2015-2016
Inka Grings	13	2010-2011