UWCL PREVIEW: AS Roma v FC Barcelona

The UEFA Women's Champions League resumes on Tuesday at 9pm CET as AS Roma and FC Barcelona face each other in the quarter final first leg.

Jonatan Giráldez and his side are looking to reach the semi-finals for the fifth time in a row, but this game should be a huge test against a club that has never progressed this far before and are expected to be supported by a bumper crowd of around 35,000 people.

The Stadio Olimpico brings back fond memories for Barça fans, for it was here that the men completed their historic treble in 2009.

The second leg of this tie will be played at Spotify Camp Nou on Wednesday 29 March at 6.45pm CET.

The story so far

Barça, winners of this title for the first time in 2021, and runners-up last season, finished top of Group D on goal difference ahead of Bayern Munich. Below those two, Benfica and Rosengård of Sweden were the two sides that failed to progress.

Roma, meanwhile, had to negotiate to preliminary rounds, where they saw off Glasgow City, Paris FC and Sparta Prague. Once into the group stage, they showed what they are made of by pushing one of the giants of women's football, VfL Wolfsburg, all the way in Group A. St. Pölten of Austria and Slavia Prague were the other teams in their group.

Roma leading in Italy

Roma qualified for the Champions League by virtue of their second place finish in last season's Serie A. They have never won the Italian championship before, but are on excellent course in 2022/23 after building up and 8-point lead over Juventus, the winners of the last five editions.

Much of that success has been driven by two very familiar faces to blaugrana fans. Vicky Losada was senior team captain and played over 300 games for Barça, while Brazilian Andressa Alves was here between 2016 and 2019.

This is the first time that Barça and Roma have ever met in a competitive match and only the second time that the Catalans have faced Italian opposition in the UWCL. The only previous occasion was in the round of 32 in 2019, when Barça ran out 4-1 winners on aggregate.