MADRID, 19 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Real Madrid Women will begin this Thursday (6:45 p.m.) their journey in the group stage of the 2022-2023 Champions League against the Albanian Vllazania, their most affordable theoretical rival and against whom they are obliged not to fail.
The Madrid team did not have much luck in the draw and surely fell into the ‘group of death’ against two candidates with level and experience such as the French Paris Saint-Germain and the English Chelsea, so it will be key to start by adding three points against the team designated as ‘cinderella’ and debutante.
The merengue ambition is to return to be at least among the top eight in the tournament and continue to gain experience in order to fight for the title as soon as possible. The road is steep from the beginning, but the team coached by Alberto Toril has started the campaign well and wants to rub shoulders with the best in Europe.
Real Madrid will be planted in Albania without having lost a game yet and having won everything just before starting a key stretch of the season where they will have to combine the Champions League and the F League, with top-level duels against PSG, FC Barcelona, ??Chelsea and Atlético of Madrid that will measure the quality of a project, at the moment, hopeful.
The Madrid team has been competing officially since August and was planted in this group stage after having to pass two previous rounds, the first of them leaving out another powerful team like the English Manchester City. The Austrian Sturm Graz and the Norwegian Rosenborg were his other victims in a journey that resulted in 12 goals for and only one against.
In the domestic tournament, the start has also been good, with three victories, the last resolved with a 7-1 win against Deportivo Alavés Gloriosas that confirmed Alberto Toril’s offensive power to dream of everything this season.
For now, the signing of Scottish midfielder Caroline Weir has been a success and the international is standing out in creation and scoring, having a good connection mainly with Athenea del Castillo who is in a great moment. Esther González, who has just scored against the United States with the national team and scored a hat-trick over the weekend, completes a high-level attacking trio that will surely be the starters on Albanian soil.
The KFF Vllaznia awaits them there, surely the big surprise of this group stage, despite the fact that by ranking it is superior to the Portuguese Benfica, and the first team in the history of Albania, whether male or female, which is among the 16 best in a UEFA club competition.
Great dominator of his championship, which he has won on nine occasions, his last appearance in the Champions League was in the 2019-2020 season, when this new format did not yet exist and where, after overcoming a previous one, he was eliminated by the Danish Fortuna Hjoerring.
To reach the group stage, they first eliminated Slovakian Spartak Myjava, whom they beat 1-0, and then Ukrainian Vorskla-Kharkiv-2, 3-2 on aggregate after drawing away (1-1) and win at home (2-1).
