Key events
Tom Garry
on match report duty
Lauren Hemp, the Manchester City winger, spoke of her Champions League title ambitions, during Monday’s pre-match press conference. The England international said, ahead of this tie against Inter: “It’s massive, being part of the Champions League and winning it is one of my aims, and it has been since I joined this club. We want to win trophies and the Champions League is definitely one on our list.”
Asked if we are still yet to see the best of City in the Champions League so far, Hemp added: “Against PSG I think we played really well. At times, we dominated. We could have got a lot more from the game but, at the end of the day, we missed a few chances. It’s important we build on every game.
“We’ve come up against really difficult opponents, as well. We’re also unbeaten, so it’s important to remember that. But each game, we want to build. There’s always still more to come from this City team but I’m proud of the performances we’ve put in so far in the Champions League.”
Early kick-offs: An all-action couple of minutes in Sweden as Alyssa Thompson has an effort cleared off the line for Chelsea after Livia Peng’s save stops Alva Selerud from giving Häcken an unlikely lead. Chelsea have had 20 shots to Häcken’s three and 76% possession – still 0-0, though.
Real Madrid have opened up a 2-0 lead against Paris FC through Arianna Caruso and Lineth Beerensteyn. There are just under 20 minutes to go in both games.
Starting lineups: Shaw and Hemp only on bench
Andrée Jeglertz has rotated his Man City side before their heavyweight WSL clash with Chelsea on Saturday lunchtime.
Inter (4-4-2): Runarsdottir; Bartoli, Milinkovic, Andrés, Van Diemen; Glionna, Tomasevic, Vilhjalmsdottir, Robustellini; Polli, Bugeja.
Subs: Forcinella, Belli, Kullberg, Santi, Payne, Detruyer, Raphino, Giudici, Cambiaghi, Bressan.
Man City (4-2-3-1): Yamashita; Casparij, Rose, Prior, Wamser; Blindkilde Brown, Coffey; Beney, Clinton, Fujino; Fowler.
Subs: Cumings, Shimizu, Shaw, Hemp, Lohmann, Hasegawa, Knaak, Lewis, Burdon, Walker.
Kerstin Casparij interview
Manchester City’s right-back can not have been far away from making that world XI – she was the fifth-highest defender in the Ballon d’Or rankings and 24th overall.
Casparij has been speaking to Suzanne Wrack about her life as a footballer in an industry that is “not normal” …
I always want to be me and I want people that I knew 10 years ago to now speak to me and be able to be like: ‘Oh you haven’t changed a single bit, you’re still the same person.’ I have a lot of friends outside of football and it gives you such a sense of normality because football, the industry, is not normal and we are not necessarily normal.
We’re in the spotlight every three days at times. We’re getting judged on our performance, we’re getting judged on how we do our work, so I kind of need that sense of normality to make sure I don’t take things too seriously and really keep both my feet on the ground.
You can read the full interview here …
Fifpro announced its 2026 world XIs yesterday and there are seven WSL players selected, including Manchester City’s Alex Greenwood. Chelsea’s Lucy Bronze set a new record with her 9th appearance in the world XI.
Hannah Hampton (Chelsea, England)
Lucy Bronze (Chelsea, England)
Alex Greenwood (Man City, England)
Mapi León (Barcelona/London City, Spain)
Irene Paredes (Barcelona, Spain)
Aitana Bonmatí (Barcelona, Spain)
Alexia Putellas (Barcelona/London City, Spain)
Ella Toone (Man Utd, England)
Barbra Banda (Orlando Pride, Zambia)
Clàudia Pina (Barcelona, Spain)
Alessia Russo (Arsenal, England)
Early kick-offs: Chelsea have had two goals disallowed and hit the crossbar in the first half but are still being held by Häcken at the Nordic Wellness Stadium, which sounds very nice. There are no goals either in Spain between Real Madrid and Paris FC.
Half-time scores
Häcken 0-0 Chelsea
Real Madrid 0-0 Paris FC
Preamble
After a week off, the Women’s Champions League returns tonight and our focus is on Monza, where Inter host Manchester City at the U-Power Stadium. After drawing their first three games in the WCL, City need to start winning if they want to progress automatically to the quarter-finals. They begin this set of fixtures 9th in the 18-team league phase, with only the top four guaranteed a spot in the last eight. Teams placed 5th to 12th head into the playoffs.
As for Inter, who finished 2nd in Serie A last season, this is another chance to test themselves against the best. David Sassarini’s side haven’t conceded a goal in domestic football this campaign but shipped six in their last WCL outing away to OL Lyonnes. They can produce an upset on their day, having dumped two-time champions Wolfsburg out in WCL qualifying in September.
We’ll hear from Man City’s Kerstin Casparij – she’s been speaking to Suzanne Wrack before this game – ahead of kick-off at 8pm. There will be updates from the evening’s other games, too, including Chelsea’s early kick-off in Sweden.
