Sports Mole previews Wednesday’s Women’s Champions League clash between Barcelona Women and Rosengard, including predictions, team news and possible lineups.
With a place in the Women’s Champions League quarter-finals already secured, Barcelona Women will attempt to wrap up top spot in their group when they face Rosengard on Wednesday.
While the Swedish side cannot reach the knockout rounds, they will be aiming to claim their first point of the competition after losing all five of their group matches.
Match preview
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Barcelona are currently sat top of their group by virtue of their head-to-head record with Bayern Munich, but there is still work to do if they are to seal first place.
The Catalan giants began the competition with a comfortable 9-0 win over Benfica, before they claimed victories over Rosengard and Bayern Munich.
Although they were able to cruise to a 3-0 win over Bayern at Camp Nou, Barcelona suffered their first defeat of the season when they were beaten 3-1 by the German side in the reverse fixture.
In their most recent outing, Barcelona recorded a 6-2 away victory over Benfica thanks to strikes from Irene Paredes, Claudia Pina, Aitana Bonmati, Ana-Maria Crnogorcevic and Mariona Caldentey as well as an own goal from Ana Seica.
Jonatan Giraldez‘s side will secure top spot if they better Bayern’s result, and with their last competitive home defeat taking place in February 2019, Barcelona will certainly have the belief that they can continue their impressive home record by claiming a win on Wednesday.
While Barcelona will be determined to clinch first place, Rosengard only have pride to play for after failing to pick up a point in any of their five group matches.
They gave up a slender lead to lose 2-1 to Bayern in their opening group game, whilst they were thrashed 4-1 at home to Barcelona on matchday two.
The Swedish side were then edged out by a narrow 1-0 scoreline against Benfica, before the Portuguese champions came from behind to beat Rosengard 3-1 in the reverse fixture.
They may have been competitive in their two meetings with Benfica, but they were swept aside by Bayern last week, with goals from Tainara, Sydney Lohmann, Georgia Stanway and Julia Landenberger condemning Rosengard to a disappointing 4-0 defeat.
Including qualifying, Rosengard have lost one of their last 11 Champions League games, and they will be well aware that they will face another tough test when they come up against a Barcelona side who have not lost a home match in the competition since March 2018.
Barcelona Women Women’s Champions League form:
Barcelona Women form (all competitions):
Rosengard Women’s Champions League form:
Rosengard (all competitions) form:
Team News
Barcelona are without the services of Alexia Putellas and Caroline Graham Hansen, who are both sidelined through injury.
After thrashing Benfica 6-2 last week, Giraldez could be tempted to name an unchanged lineup for Wednesday’s contest.
Geyse has top scored for Barcelona across all competitions this season, and she will be looking to add to her nine-goal tally when she leads the line against Rosengard.
As for the visitors, Bianca Schmidt could be brought into the side to partner Gudrun Arnardottir in the centre of defence.
Sofie Bredgaard dropped down to the bench last week, but she may be included in a midfield three alongside Mia Persson and Olivia Holdt.
Loreta Kullashi scored in Rosengard’s opening group game against Bayern, and the 23-year-old will be keen to round off her European campaign with another goal when she features in the frontline on Wednesday.
Barcelona Women possible starting lineup:
Panos; Bronze, Paredes, Mapi Leon, Rolfo; Bonmati, Walsh, Guijarro; Crnogorcevic, Pina, Geyse
Rosengard possible starting lineup:
Mukasa; Oling, Schmidt, Arnardottir, Wik; Bredgaard, Persson, Holdt; Larsson, Schough, Kullashi
We say: Barcelona Women 5-0 Rosengard
Although Rosengard will want to avoid finishing their European campaign without a point, we think they could be outclassed by a Barcelona side that have the quality to reach the latter stages and potentially win the Champions League.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
