Now that pre-season is out of the way, competitive football is very nearly here again for Les Parisiennes, who are coming off the back of a thoroughly convincing 4–0 friendly win over Valencia CF during their recent training camp in Spain. Last season's third-place finishers in the Arkema Première Ligue are now turning their attentions towards their first major challenge of the campaign: a double header with Eintracht Frankfurt for a place in the league phase of the UEFA Women's Champions League.
It won't be an easy task for Paulo César's players, either, as their upcoming opponents have already swept aside both AC Omonia Nicosia (8–0) and Malmö FF (2–0) to reach this stage and will be hoping to relive their glory days on the continental stage this year. So, the capital club will certainly be up against a team in top form in Germany tomorrow night.
Having reached the UWCL proper just once in the last 10 years (in 2023–2024), the German club's women are chasing a return to the heady heights that they reached back in the 2000s and the early 2010s, when they won this competition on four occasions, the most recent of which was in 2015, after they beat none other than Paris Saint-Germain in the final. Between then and the current day, though, the team has suffered a sharp decline, partially due to the rise of Wolfsburg's and Bayern Munich's women's sides.
Since claiming seven Frauen-Bundesliga titles between 1999 and 2008 under the name of 1. FFC Frankfurt (before merging with Eintracht Frankfurt to become the team that we know today), Die Adlerträgerinnen have experienced something of a trophy drought domestically, but, thanks to this qualifier against Paris, they have the chance to return to the UWCL and, in doing so, to avoid dropping into the UEFA Women's Europa Cup as they did last season, although this did lead to them reaching the brand-new competition's semi-finals. Les Parisiennes will therefore have to be on high alert against their ambitious opponents.
While the team from the other side of the Rhine can still count on its captain, Laura Freigang, who boasts over 170 appearances for the club, it's been a rather turbulent summer for Niko Arnautis's squad. Several of his key players have left in the current transfer window, including Switzerland international Géraldine Reuteler, who joined Arsenal after spending six seasons in Germany, and Nicole Anyomi, who signed for London City Lionesses at the start of July.
Although Die Adlerträgerinnen are undergoing reconstruction, they've made a fairly strong start to the 2026–2027 campaign, with two wins from their previous two UWCL qualifiers. So, Paulo César will need to find a way of unsettling a resolutely attack-minded side that is efficient going forward but can be flaky at the back. Ahead of the second leg at PSG Campus, gaining the upper hand on the scoreboard tomorrow night would be a very wise move for Les Rouge et Bleue.
On the eve of the first leg, Paris captain Sakina Karchaoui spoke about what awaits her side in Germany.
“This is a really important game and one that will be difficult against a good team, but we’re armed and ready to fight. Getting back into the Champions League is a real aim of ours, so we need to do our best and to show that we can compete with the best teams in Europe.”
Tomorrow's first leg kicks off at 19:00 CEST at Stadion am Brentanobad in Frankfurt and will be broadcast live on PSG TV Premium – which you can get via a MyParis Premium subscription for just €19.90 per season – in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Andorra and Monaco.
