In their return to the competition after a five-year absence, Arsenal have drawn Fiorentina in the Round of 32 of the UEFA Women’s Champions League. Unlike the men’s Champions League, the women’s competition is a straight knockout round after the completion of the qualifying stage. In the knockout rounds, teams with higher coefficients are seeded, and because of their lack of play in Europe, Arsenal were unseeded, meaning they could’ve drawn 6-time winners Lyon, finalists Barcelona or two-time winners and German champions Wolfsburg.
Instead, Arsenal will play Fiorentina. Fiorentina won Serie A in 2016-17 and played in the Champions League in 2017-18 (hence their seeding), where they went out to Wolfsburg in the round of 16. In last season’s Serie A, Fiorentina finished second, a single point behind champions Juventus.
The first leg will take place at home, at Meadow Park, on either September 11 or 12, with the second leg in Florence two weeks later. Arsenal remain the only British team to have won the women’s Champions League, having won the competition in 2007.