The time is ripe to challenge the established order. Change is afoot among the top teams in the Women’s Champions League, which gets under way on Wednesday night with the first round of qualifying. For any club with ambitions of toppling the stalwarts Lyon and Barcelona, who have won 11 titles (eight and three respectively), this could be the season to do it.
The task is still huge, the mountain maintains its nausea‑inducing height but, with different guides leading those teams, their routes to the top may not be quite as straightforward.
