[Jeff]

First Qualifying Round: September 4-9; nine teams will emerge and progress to the Second Qualifying Round, October 9 to 14, 2008. They will be joined by the following seven teams, who have a bye into the Second Round: Frankfurt (Cup holders), Arsenal, Olympique Lyonnais, Umeå, Brøndby, Duisburg, and Bardolino Verona. The 16 teams will be drawn into four groups; the top two in each group will advance to the two-leg Quarterfinals, November 5/6 and 12/13, 2008.

The two-leg Semifinals will be on March 28/29 and April 4/5, 2009, and the two-leg final May 16 and 23, 2009.

 

[Jeff]

The 8 teams who survived the second round are: Frankfurt (Cup holders), Arsenal, Olympique Lyonnais, Umeå, Brøndby, Duisburg, Bardolino Verona, and Zvezda-2005.

The QF matchups are:

Brøndby IF (DEN) v Zvezda-2005 (RUS)
Arsenal LFC (ENG) v Umeå IK (SWE)
ASD CF Bardolino Verona (ITA) v Olympique Lyonnais (FRA)
1. FFC Frankfurt (GER) v FCR 2001 Duisburg (GER)

Each pair will play two legs, home and away, Nov. 5 - 18, 2008. The four winners will advance to the semifinals next March 28 - April 5.

 

[Jeff]

November 5 results (first leg)
Brøndby 2-4 Zvezda
Frankfurt 1-3 Duisburg

November 6 results (first leg)
Arsenal 3-2 Umeå
Bardolino 0-5 Olympique Lyonnais

November 12 result (second leg)
Umeå 6-0 Arsenal [Marta scored 4] Umeå advances to semifinals.

November 13 results (second leg)
Zvezda 3-1 Brøndby Zvezda will meet Umeå in the semifinals.
Duisburg 2-0 Frankfurt Duisburg advances to semifinals.

November 18 result (second leg)
Olympique Lyonnais 4-1 Bardolino Olympique plays Duisburg in semifinals

 

[Jeff]

Semifinal results:

March 28 - First Leg: Olympique 1-1 Duisburg
March 29 - First Leg: Zvezda 2-0 Umeå

April 5 - Second Leg:
Duisburg 3-1 Olympique: Duisburg advances to FINAL, May 16 and 22
Umeå 2-2 Zvezda: Zvezda advances to FINAL, May 16 and 22

 

[mandela10]

seriously guys, i saw the German women national team play, those girls are awesome, they really know how to kick it.

 

[Jeff]

I'm watching the first leg of the final streamed live at video.UEFA.com.

It's available on a free basis in the United States, Canada, China and Japan, and by pay-per-view elsewhere.

The second leg will be available the same, on Friday May 22 at 19.30CET.

Zvedza, playing at home, are surprisingly weak, considering the way they demolished Brøndby and Umeå to get to the final.

Duisburg is up 5-0 late in the match, leaving Zvezda with the prospect of having to score at least 6 goals next Friday in Duisburg! It's going to be an anticlimactic second leg, I'm afraid.

Fan support is abysmal. The stadium is almost empty.

 

[Jeff]

Final score 6-0. Inka Grings with a hat-trick.

 

[Jeff]

In contrast to the near-empty stadium in Kazan last week, a record 28,112 supporters showed up today to cheer Duisburg on to victory in the second leg. Duisburg won the Final, and the Cup, with a 7-1 aggregate score over the two legs.

Match Report