Back to the drawing board for Chelsea and Sonia Bompastor: Winners and losers from the Women's Champions League quarter-finals as defending champions Arsenal win all-English grudge match while Alexia

With Aitana Bonmati having suffered a likely season-ending injury in December, the Ballon d'Or Feminin is almost certainly going to have its first different winner since the Spanish star won the first of her three in a row in 2023. Right now, the favourite to succeed Bonmati is her Barcelona team-mate Alexia Putellas, who would equal her compatriot on three Golden Balls were she to be crowned in Paris later in the year.

Certainly Putellas did her chances no harm by starring in Barca's thrashing of Real Madrid in the Champions League's first women's Clasico tie. The 32-year-old scored two and assisted three more of the Blaugrana's 12 goals across the two legs, celebrating her 500th appearance for the club in some style while ensuring the Ballon d'Or voters see her producing the goods in the most-watched matches.

"I have no words to describe the feeling right now," Putellas told Disney+ after more than 60,000 supporters watched Wednesday's second leg at Camp Nou. "It's been magical. Around 20 years ago, it was me sat in the corner of the stadium with my family, and now I can say that I have played my 500th game for the club here.

"I am super grateful and I hope the fans here see it as an opportunity for them, because I was there where they were. I am human, like everyone here today, and one day I am sure they can achieve it."

Linda Caicedo is one of the best young players on the planet. Winner of the NXGN 2024 women's award, the Colombia international is still only 21 years old but has already lit up Copa America and World Cup tournaments to announce herself to the world as one of the most exciting talents in the women's game. And yet, at club level, it's hard to feel like she is in the right place to turn that into team success.

That's an incredible statement to make about a player who represents Real Madrid, one of the biggest and most illustrious football clubs in history, but Las Blancas are comfortably and consistently second-best in Spain, with Barca streets ahead, meaning chances of silverware are few and far between domestically, never mind beyond that. Indeed, Barca have won all-but-two of the domestic trophies on offer since Madrid's entry into the women's game in 2020, with Atletico Madrid the side to capitalise on both of those blips.

The Champions League quarter-finals only hammered home the point. Caicedo was electric in the first leg against Barca, scoring two truly outstanding goals. Yet, her team were beaten 6-2 on home soil, rendering the second leg, and Caicedo's remarkable contributions, irrelevant.

From a neutral's perspective, it makes the 21-year-old's decision back in November to sign a contract until 2031 all the more frustrating. This is a top, top footballer who deserves to win trophies and has the ability to deliver moments that clinch them - but she won't be able to do that in a Real Madrid team that is way off the elite.

What a season Pernille Harder is having. The Bayern Munich star has been one of the most productive players in Europe, helping her side stay on track for another domestic treble while also remaining in the mix in the Champions League. It was form she carried into the quarter-finals, as her two goals at Old Trafford allowed the German champions to establish a 3-2 advantage in the first leg of their meeting with Manchester United - one they would back up with a 2-1 win at the Allianz Arena to reach the last four.

A childhood United fan, for Harder to net twice at the Theatre of Dreams was special. “I never thought I would score two goals at Old Trafford,” she told Disney+. “When I was a kid, there was no women's team, so it would not even be possible. It's a dream come true.”

But, as Harder would go on to add, the most important thing was the win, which set Bayern up to continue their European adventure into the semi-finals. That’s important for the team, of course, but it’s also noteworthy for Harder, who now sits on 26 goals and 10 assists this season.

That sort of form deserves to put her hat in the ring for the Ballon d’Or, which she likely would’ve won in 2020 were the awarding of it not cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Getting her hands on the Golden Ball will, however, be tough, especially with Bayern set to face Barcelona in the next round, but these games put a deserved spotlight on just how well Harder is playing right now.

United boss Marc Skinner has been under pressure for most of his time in charge of the club, really. The 43-year-old has dealt with it impressively well overall, too, given the various factors out of his control that have not helped.

This season alone, an underwhelming summer transfer window left him with a squad unfit for competing across four fronts, something which led to one pundit suggesting the club had let the women’s team down. Three good January signings made up for that in some areas, until a barrage of injuries left United with a threadbare bench for the trip to Munich on Wednesday.

But with that pressure heightened by the Red Devils’ FA Cup exit, their League Cup final defeat and a Women’s Super League title charge that felt dead way back in mid-November, it was hard to find excuses for Skinner as his team lost 2-1 at the Allianz Arena to be knocked out of the Champions League.

It all started so well, too. Skinner had his team attacking with intent in the first half, with Melvine Malard causing problems in particular. After just 15 minutes, she’d already beaten Bayern goalkeeper Ena Mahmutovic and forced the young shot-stopper into two good saves. The momentum was all with United.

Yet, after the break, the Red Devils didn’t have a shot until the 87th minute, when they were suddenly 2-1 down on the night and 5-3 down on aggregate. It was never expected that United could keep up that high energy all game, but the difference was so drastic and detrimental, with no respite offered by the attack.

Perhaps it was a lack of energy brought on by an over-stretched and injury-hit squad, but Maya Le Tissier's post-match comments did not suggest as much and Skinner did himself few favours with the way he used his bench. Lea Schuller, the free-scoring forward signed from Bayern in January, wasn't introduced until the 86th minute.

Again, there are many mitigating factors that mean United’s run to the Champions League quarter-finals, on their debut in the competition, was excellent and certainly not an underachievement. But the manner in which the Red Devils collapsed in Wednesday’s second leg will leave a bitter taste, given the position they were in with just 45 minutes to go in the tie.

It’s fair to say that, back in the league phase, not many would’ve seen a Champions League title defence as successful, thus far, as the one Arsenal are producing. Beaten by both Lyon and Bayern Munich, instead getting their wins against sides most would expect them to beat, the Gunners seemed to take a little while to warm-up to the 2025-26 season.

But warmed-up they have now. Arsenal have been excellent in the second half of the season, coming into this last week's quarter-final tie with Chelsea having lost just once since the turn of the year, and that when down to 10 in the League Cup semi-final loss to Manchester United. They lifted the FIFA Women’s Champions Cup in January, defeated runaway WSL leaders Manchester City in February and have now added to that by ending Chelsea’s Champions League dreams while continuing their own title defence.

The latter will feel particularly sweet. The Blues have been the dominant force in England for the best part of a decade and yet European glory eludes them. It means Arsenal remain the only English side ever to have won the Women's Champions League, and that fact will remain for another season after the Gunners were able to eliminate their London rivals first-hand.

Fans of this team have every right to believe their side can lift that trophy again, too. Arsenal are in excellent form and there is no side left in the competition that does not have its flaws. What is to stop them going all the way once more?

If Sonia Bompastor’s first season in charge of Chelsea could’ve hardly gone better, her second season at the club could hardly be going worse. That’s speaking relative to the standards at the club, of course, given she did lead the Blues to another League Cup title last month and they are still alive in the FA Cup. But to fall short in the Champions League again will be of particular frustration, given this is the trophy the team craves so much.

Despite winning six WSL titles in a row and being the best team in England by a consistent distance over the best part of the last 10 years, Chelsea have only ever been to one Women's Champions Leaue final - and in that they were torn apart by Barcelona, losing 4-0. When Emma Hayes left the club at the end of the 2023-24 season, Bompastor was seen as the perfect person to take the baton and get the Blues over the hump.

The only woman ever to win the Champions League as both a player and a manager, she arrived with the right credentials, but the gap between Chelsea and Barca, so often the side to knock them out of Europe, was laid bare when the Catalans prevailed with an 8-2 aggregate win in last season’s semi-finals.

To lose to Arsenal in the quarter-finals this year, though, will be particularly disappointing. Wins for the Gunners in this rivalry have been few and far between over the years, with them registering just five in the last 22 meetings prior to this tie, compared to Chelsea’s 13. But amid an incredibly underwhelming WSL title defence, an admittedly long list of injuries, and with VAR also proving itself a controversial addition to the pot, the Blues could not maintain that strong record in this quarter-final, losing a tight first leg by a difficult 3-1 scoreline that rendered a late 1-0 win at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday redundant.

Chelsea’s European dream is over yet again. The club believe Bompastor is the right manager to realise it, as evidenced by the new four-year contract she received earlier this year, but it is back to the drawing board for the Frenchwoman after this extremely disappointing exit - the earliest for the Blues in four years.

Lyon went into their tie with Wolfsburg as the favourites to progress, but after losing the first leg 1-0 in Germany, elimination was a real possibility heading into the return fixture. Lily Yohannes' strike ensured the clash went to extra-time, but it was left to Melchie Dumornay to step up and finally give the eight-time winners the lead on aggregate.

Dumornay's 102nd-minute goal was not a thing of beauty, as she reacted quickest inside the six-yard box to fire home a bouncing ball following a set-piece, but it was only right that the Haiti international proved to be the match-winner given the impact she continues to make on this Lyon side. Still only 22, the forward is among the favourites for the Ballon d'Or once again in 2026, and if she can continue her fine form into Lyon's semi-final meeting with Arsenal and play a leading role in earning a place in the final, then Dumornay could easily force her way onto the Golden Ball podium.

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