Birkirkara will be hosting FK Breznica of Montenegro in the semi-final of Group 4 of Round 1 of the UEFA Women’s Champions League 2024/25 at the Centenary Stadium on Wednesday, kick-off at 21:15.
The winner will then face the winner of the clash between RSC Anderlecht and ŽFK Crvena zvezda in the final which will be played on Saturday.
The Stripes, now led by coach Vince Galea, registered two wins in the first two matches from the Assikura Women’s League, defeating San Gwann 11-0 and Lija Athletic 1-0.
This will be the second time, Birkirkara will be facing FK Breznica as the two were paired in the same group last season, with the Stripes emerging as winners 1-0 in the semi-final, losing to FC Zurich in the final.
Founded in 2013, FK Breznica won the last nine titles in Montenegro.
Round 1 is one of two rounds before the 16-team group stage, which starts in October. It is split into two paths: the champions path and the league path. In both paths, round 1 will consist of two stages, each of one-off knockout matches played in single-venue mini-tournaments with semi-finals on 4 September and finals/third-place play-offs on 7 September.
The winners of each final (11 in champions path, four in league path) will progress to round 2, which will decide the 12 teams joining holders Barcelona, Lyon, Bayern and Chelsea in the group stage.
As from the 2025/26 season, the format of the UEFA Women’s Champions League will change.
Under the new format, teams will no longer play three opponents twice – home and away – but will instead face fixtures against six different teams in the league stage, playing half of those matches at home and half of them away.
To determine the six different opponents, the teams will be ranked in three seeding pots based on their latest club-coefficient ranking. To ensure a balanced level of opposition for all and a balanced calendar, each team will then be drawn to play two opponents from each of these pots, playing one match against a team from each pot at home, and one away.
The results of each match will decide the overall ranking in the new league, with three points for a win, one for a draw and none for a defeat. The new format, with all the teams ranked together in a single league, will mean that there is more to play for all the way through to the final night of the league phase where all the matches will kick off at the same time.
In addition to the previous season’s Women’s Champions League winner, and the domestic champions of the three top-ranked national associations, who qualify directly in the current format, the champions of associations ranked 4-6 and the runners-up of associations 1 and 2 will access the league stage directly.
Four more teams will join via the Champions qualifying path and five from the League qualifying path, which is extended to include, two new teams, the runner-up of the association ranked 17 and the third-placed team from the seventh-ranked association for the first time.
The top four sides in the league will qualify automatically for the quarter-finals, while the teams finishing in 5th to 12th place will compete in a two-legged knock-out phase play-off to secure their path to the last eight. Teams ranked 13 to 18 will be eliminated.
The four clubs which prevail in the knockout phase play-offs will then progress to the quarter-finals, where they will each face one of the top-four finishers, who will be seeded and will play the second leg of the quarter-final at home.
From the quarter-finals onwards, the competition will follow its existing format of knockout rounds leading to the final staged at a neutral venue selected by UEFA.
New format for UEFA Women’s Champions League and new competition as from next season
Meanwhile UEFA will be introducing a second competition that would allow more clubs to compete in Europe.
Thirteen teams, the third-placed teams in the domestic league from associations ranked 8-13 and the runners-up of associations ranked 18-24, will enter the competition directly while a feeding system from the UEFA Women’s Champions League will see the new competition offer a second chance to the clubs eliminated in Round 2 as well as the runners-up and third-placed teams from the Round 1 tournaments.
The second competition will be a straight knockout, played in parallel to the Women’s Champions League. It will feature a total of six rounds, Rounds 1, 2 and the round of 16, quarter-finals, semi-finals and final will of which will be played over two legs (home and away).
The winners will automatically qualify for the second round of the champions path of the next season’s UEFA Women’s Champions League, with one round to negotiate for a place in the league stage.