Barcelona Faces Manchester City in Women's Champions League Group

Barcelona will play Manchester City in the Women's Champions League group stage after a 16-team draw. They will also face St. Pölten and Hammarby. The tournament adopts a new format next season, replacing the group stage. Prize money of 24 million euros is at stake.

Two-time defending champion Barcelona will play Manchester City in the Women's Champions League group after the 16-team draw on Friday.

Barcelona and Man City also will face St. Pölten and Hammarby in the traditional round-robin groups that start on October 8.

Lyon, the record eight-time European champion, landed in a tough group with Wolfsburg, the titleholder in 2013 and '14, Roma and debutant Galatasaray.

Juventus eliminated Paris Saint-Germain on Thursday in the second qualifying round and was drawn into a group with Bayern Munich, Arsenal and Vålerenga. Chelsea was top-seeded in a group with Real Madrid, Twente and Celtic.

This is the final season of the group stage in the Women's Champions League before it adopts the new single-standings format that the men's competition changed to this season.

Games finish on December 18 and the top two in each group advance to the knockout stage.

Two-leg quarter-finals are in March, the semi-finals are in April and the final is at Sporting Lisbon's stadium on May 25.

The competition has a total prize money fund of at least 24 million euros (USD 26.8 million) with 11.4 million euros (USD 12.7 million) shared between the 16 group-stage clubs.

(With inputs from agencies.)