UWCL talking points: How can VAR, refs improve? Can Madrid keep Caicedo?

The first legs of the UEFA Women’s Champions League (UWCL) quarterfinals are over, and there were some shock results and controversial decisions to pick through.

Chelsea were upset with the referee and VAR over a disallowed goal in the 3-1 defeat to Arsenal, while OL Lyonnes had two first-half penalty claims denied in their 1-0 loss to VfL Wolfsburg. Then on Wednesday, Barcelona thrashed rivals Real Madrid 6-2 to virtually seal their spot in the semifinals, before UWCL debutants Manchester United twice came from behind against Bayern Munich only to fall 3-2.

Emily Keogh, Alex Kirkland and Tom Hamilton answer some of our burning questions ahead of the second legs next week.

The standard of refereeing and VAR gained a large amount of attention across the first two quarterfinals, so what needs to improve?

Keogh: This issue runs far deeper than a handful of controversial matches. There have been numerous instances in this competition’s history where questionable decisions have stood — none more notable than Kadeisha Buchanan’s red card vs. Barcelona in 2024, which then-Chelsea boss Emma Hayes famously labelled “one of the worst decisions in UEFA Women’s Champions League history.”

While women’s football has grown enormously since Euro 2022, the standard of officiating has struggled to keep pace. There remains a shortage of full-time, well-paid, and well-trained referees in England — let alone in countries with less developed professional structures.

Many domestic leagues still operate without VAR, making its inconsistent application at the highest level even more problematic. And, as seen this week with both Chelsea and OL Lyonnes, VAR itself is far from a flawless solution, given it is still subject to human error.

Ultimately, this is a systemic issue. And it’s frustrating that, once again, the conversation is dominated by officiating decisions rather than the quality of football and the intensity with which the teams competed.

– Hamilton: Man United’s big night was disappointing, but not their spirit
– Kirkland: Barcelona remind Madrid who reigns supreme in UWCL
– Keogh: Arsenal teach Chelsea a UWCL lesson in clinical finishing

Kirkland: I agree. The UWCL is improving so fast, in all kinds of ways; now the standard of refereeing has to keep up. Some of these decisions — like the one to disallow Veerle Buurman’s goal for Chelsea for a non-existent push at 2-0 down against Arsenal, which might easily have changed the game — are unjustifiable and undermine the competition’s credibility.

Chelsea coach Sonia Bompastor was blunt in her assessment after game. “You need to respect the women’s game. You need to respect the players,” she said. “I don’t see, with the VAR, how you can disallow that goal … I don’t think it’s the first time for us this season in the Champions League. I just think they need to be better.”

OK, so referees and VAR officials need to be better. But that’s easier said than done, and experience isn’t necessarily the issue. Referee Alina Pesu, who was in charge of Arsenal-Chelsea, isn’t lacking experience at the top level — she officiated at Euro 2025 — and the VAR, Ovidiu Hategan, has refereed at two men’s Euros.

play

Lucy Bronze: Ref the only one on the pitch who would disallow Chelsea’s goal

Lucy Bronze shares her frustrations after Chelsea were beaten 3-1 by Arsenal in the first leg of the Women’s Champions League quarterfinal.

Hamilton: Having spoken to a few figures in the game since the controversial calls in Tuesday’s quarterfinals, the general consensus is that the competition needs to have more experienced officials in the VAR hotseat and, while the pool of world-class referees is small in the women’s game, they should be the ones taking charge of these matches — the best competition deserves the top referees.

That’s certainly what Bompastor thinks anyway … though given the Women’s Super League didn’t have a single referee picked for Euro 2024, there aren’t many answers close to home.

Looking at Tuesday night’s matches, the decision to disallow Buurman’s goal was baffling at best, while OL Lyonnes can rightly feel aggrieved at having two first-half penalty appeals turned down: Lindsey Heaps was body-checked when about 10 yards out with an open field in front of her, while the ball struck Camilla Küver’s hand on a shot that looked goal-bound.

What went wrong for OL Lyonnes vs. VfL Wolfsburg? Can they overturn their 1-0 deficit?

Hamilton: A few things went wrong: firstly, their defense looked disorganized, and they were also far too open on the flanks, letting Wolfsburg get plenty of crosses into the box. Lineth Beerensteyn’s goal was fortunate, given the heavy deflection, but she should have been closed down, and Lyonnes were lucky she stuck a header over from close-range later in the first half.

But Lyonnes fans shouldn’t panic — I fully expect the French giants to go through. They had a ton of chances and had at least two legitimate penalty shouts ignored. We’ve seen them profligate in this competition already — they had 45 shots against St. Pölten and won 3-0, and there were echoes of that match here. So they need to finetune their radar for the return leg but ,given their chance creation in Germany with Kadidiatou Diani hitting the post and Marie-Antoinette Katoto missing from close-range, and the ease at which they opened up Wolfsburg on several further occasions, Lyonnes should progress.

The first goal will be crucial — if the German side score first, then it becomes very interesting.

Keogh: Now on the back foot, Lyonnes will almost certainly respond to secure their place in the next round. The eight-time champions know exactly what’s required in these situations and more often than not, they deliver. There are still a few teething problems under manager Jonatan Giráldez, who was appointed at the start of the season, but overall the transition has been smooth and the French side remain formidable.

Wolfsburg, meanwhile, have developed an unfortunate habit of letting control slip from winning positions. There have been several occasions in this competition where they’ve held the advantage, only to lose momentum and allow opponents back into the game. Given that pattern, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see history repeat itself here.

Kirkland: Absolutely. A 1-0 first leg loss away from home isn’t the end of the world. As Tom says, Lyonnes could easily have scored a goal or two at the Volkswagen Arena — they had 19 shots, but just three of them on target — and they’ll be confident of doing so in the second leg.

If you look at their record in the last few months, they’ve frequently won by big margins, even scoring five, six or seven goals a game in French football, and they racked up 18 goals in six UWCL league phase games. I’d be surprised if they didn’t progress to the semifinals.

Barcelona thumped Real Madrid 6-2. Will Las Blancas ever close the gap on their eternal rivals, and can they keep hold of superstar Linda Caicedo?

Kirkland: Ever? Yeah, sure … as “ever” is a long time. But not anytime soon. Madrid might have won their first game against Barcelona last year — the all-time record in this fixture now stands at 22-1 — but sitting watching Wednesday’s game at Valdebebas, it still felt like there’s a huge gulf between the two sides.

Madrid have made progress, but they’re still short of overall quality and a clear collective identity; Barça were absolutely ruthless, and a 6-2 scoreline was no exaggeration.

The teams meet again in Liga F at the weekend, before next week’s second leg, and Barça midfielder Patri Guijarro said afterwards that their objective was to leave Madrid thinking “oh no, not again on Sunday.” Mission accomplished.

As for Caicedo, she’s hands down my favorite UWCL player to watch right now. Her two goals here were joyous, especially the second. She recently signed a new contract, and Madrid want to build a team around her, as coach Pau Quesada admitted afterwards. “We have to help her,” he said. “The Madrid we want to build is with those players who make the difference.”

I accept others might be skeptical, but I think Caicedo will want to stick around and lead that change. Madrid is a great place to be, even if the team is still a work in progress. At 21, time is on her side.

Hamilton: What Alex said: Barcelona’s women are at least a decade ahead of Real Madrid in their development. Caicedo is a wonderful player, the sort who you’d travel to watch regardless of who she was playing against, but the club must match her incredible talent with notable signs of their own ambition. Time is on her side but, equally, careers are short and when you have a dominant side winning league after league, playing second to that does get tiresome.

Madrid’s academy is a way off Barça’s production line, and they’re also losing a couple of immense talents at the end of the season in Caroline Weir and Naomie Feller, as ESPN reported earlier in the week.

For Madrid to catch Barcelona they need two things to happen: they need Barça’s incredible breath of talent to leave and scatter across Europe (with several big-name players out of contract in the summer), and for their own recruitment to take a step up.

Keogh: The gap is narrowing but only marginally. Madrid still trail Barcelona significantly in terms of squad depth, tactical cohesion, identity, and overall player quality. Caicedo is an exceptional talent, but she can only carry the side so far.

For Real to truly progress, the team around her needs to rise to her level. Too often, they appear disjointed, rich in individual quality, yet unable to consistently bring it together. They know how to win, but struggle with the psychological hurdle of facing Barcelona. Their defence can look solid, yet is too easily exposed under pressure.

If Madrid are serious about becoming genuine contenders and matching Barcelona’s standard, substantial changes are needed. That process should begin with fully building the team around Caicedo — something that arguably should have been a priority from the moment she arrived.

She does have a contract until 2030 so Madrid have some power there.

play

Laurens has hope for Manchester United despite first leg defeat to Bayern

Julien Laurens looks back on Manchester United’s 3-2 defeat to Bayern Munich in the first leg of their Women’s Champions League quarterfinal.

Manchester United showed they can compete vs. Bayern Munich, but what do they need to do to truly take the step up and join Europe’s elite?

Hamilton: This was put to United boss Marc Skinner after the match and it comes back to the brutal simplicity of recruitment. Succinct in name, but incredibly difficult to bring into practice effectively. United’s squad is paper thin. They had just five outfield players on the bench on Wednesday, and started Hinata Miyazawa, who started the Women’s Asian Cup final in Sydney on Saturday, arrived back in Manchester on Monday and then faced Bayern two days later. Skinner had no choice really but to pick her.

United bolstered their squad with three quality players in January, but they need more aggressive recruitment in the summer. Their players are battling through exhaustion, and you have to admire how they’re still managing to compete on two fronts: domestic and European football. But you feel they’re playing at their physical and emotional limit, and for this group to really push on and move to the next level, they need a bigger squad with more quality. The powers that be have to match Skinner and his player’s ambition.

Keogh: One clear positive from the defeat was the way United fought back, twice, to push Bayern all the way. Conceding after just 98 seconds to Pernille Harder could easily have derailed them, but instead, it sparked a response. Even when Bayern regained the lead, United showed resilience to level again, only to be undone late on by Momoko Tanikawa’s decisive strike.

That resilience marks a significant step forward from previous seasons, where early setbacks often led to a complete loss of control — most notably in the 6-0 defeat to Chelsea at the end of 2024 in the WSL. However, their lack of depth remains a glaring issue. With only five outfield substitutes available, United simply didn’t have the resources to change the game late on. and that underlines how early they still are in their development.

Reformed in 2018 and back in the WSL by 2019, they are arguably ahead of where their level of investment might suggest, but that progress can only take them so far. As Tom pointed out, continued investment is essential. For too long, there have been excuses about being unable to match the spending power of clubs like Chelsea and Arsenal. But this is Manchester United. If they are to live up to that name, they must move beyond the false underdog mentality, properly back the team, and prove they belong at this level. Only then will competing at the top become an expectation rather than an ambition.

Kirkland: This wasn’t a bad result for United, but they’ll be cursing the defensive lapses that saw them concede three times. I think that was a sign that they need a bit more experience at this level, and the composure and confidence that comes with it. Too often at Old Trafford the occasion looked too much for them.

Bayern have been doing this for a long time, and they know what it takes to perform in the UWCL against the best; United are on that learning curve now. But this experience will be valuable and they can build on it next year, whatever happens in the second leg.