Wrexham react to Women’s Champions League qualifying draw: ‘It’s such a big stage’
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Wrexham’s experienced defender Sarah Harvey believes the club’s historic Women’s Champions League debut can be just the start, saying, “We’re not shy of the big games any more.”
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Jenny Sugarman’s side, crowned Welsh champions last spring, have been handed a tough first qualifying round assignment against Pyunik, the Armenian champions for the past three years.
Under a format now into its second season, the winners of the July 22 showdown will then meet whoever prevails in the other semi-final between Glentoran and Riga, champions of Northern Ireland and Latvia, for a place in the next qualifying stage.
All the ties will be staged at the same venue, possibly the Racecourse Ground. A decision will be announced on Friday following a meeting of the four clubs.
Should unseeded Wrexham upset the odds and progress, a semi-final against Danish champions Koge would be next up in another mini-tournament also featuring Gintra of Lithuania and Scotland’s Hearts.
To underline the size of the task facing the club owned by Hollywood actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob Mac, no Welsh team has won a Champions League qualifying match since Cardiff Met in 2019 and even then, they failed to progress from a four-team group.
It’s also five years — and eight games — since an Adran Premier League side even scored in Europe’s premier competition, Chloe Chivers the last to do so when netting for Swansea City in a 4-1 defeat to CSKA Moscow.
“It’s so exciting to see the calibre of teams from all the different countries,” says Harvey, speaking to The Athletic after joining her team-mates to follow a live feed of Thursday’s draw at the House of European Football in Nyon, Switzerland.
“As soon as we pulled Pyunik, I’m, like, ‘Where are they from?’. It’s very exciting to look at their history. We’re coming off a double-winning season (Wrexham also lifted the Adran Welsh Cup), how do we play against them? What’s our tactics?”
Competing in the Champions League qualifiers will be the latest notable step forward for a women’s setup that was effectively mothballed just a decade ago due to lack of funds.
Relaunched in 2018, Wrexham’s revival gathered pace following Reynolds and Mac’s takeover three years later. Promotion to the Welsh top flight — a primarily amateur and semi-professional competition, in contrast to the fully professional Women’s Super League (WSL) in England — followed in 2023.
Since then, further investment has secured a long-term permanent home for the team at the Rock, the 3,000-capacity former home of Cefn Druids bought by Wrexham last year, as well as the signings that helped land the club’s first league title when Cardiff City, champions in each of the previous three seasons, were thrashed 4-1 in March.
“To win one (trophy) is amazing,” says Harvey. “To win two is indescribable. To do it with a club like Wrexham, that has the community and the fans like we do, is so special and meaningful.
“My friends in Canada or my family in Ireland and Scotland can follow us and get behind us because of how well Wrexham promotes the women’s teams. It’s like our 12th man.”
Next month’s foray into Europe will stir memories of previous European campaigns for the men’s team, Wrexham having competed in eight editions of the European Cup Winners’ Cup between 1972 and 1995.
Along the way, notable scalps were claimed by the serial Welsh Cup winners, with the aggregate victory over Porto in 1984 a clear highlight along with reaching the quarter-finals eight years earlier.
Now, Sugarman’s side have an opportunity to create their own history in a competition where half of the 18 teams who will compete in the league phase come late September are already known, including holders Barcelona and Manchester City, the English champions.
Arsenal, Bayern Munich, Roma, Paris FC, Lyon, Benfica and Europa Cup winners Hacken have also all qualified.
The route to joining those big names can be long and testing, particularly for teams such as Wrexham entering at the earliest of three qualification stages. The first two of these rounds take the form of mini-tournaments, while the final qualifying stage will be a two-legged play-off also featuring teams such as Chelsea, Inter and Real Madrid.
Signed last February from Lewes in England, Harvey boasts Champions League experience, having played for Georgian side Samegrelo in the 2023-24 campaign.
After edging past NS Mura, the dominant force in Slovenian football, on penalties after a goalless draw, they bowed out of qualifying to Cypriot side Apollon Limassol.
“No one had money on us to win and rightly so,” she says about taking on Mura. “We went down to nine players (due to two red cards), got through extra time and then won it on penalties.
“That was amazing. Luckily, my dad came. It was really special to play in that game and have a family member there to share the moment. Then, our second game (against Apollon), due to the red cards, we had maybe one player on the bench.
“We were told to play everything in our half, pretty much ‘park the bus’. We were hoping for another penalty shootout but we lost 3-0. The whole experience, though, made me want to do it all again.”
Wrexham already boast several notable firsts for women’s football in Wales, including the first to own their stadium outright and the first to buy a player for a fee from a league rival when snapping up Maria Francis Jones from The New Saints.
Can this trailblazing stretch to becoming the country’s first qualifiers for the Champions League group stage? It’s a very, very tall order on debut, especially with first-round opponents Pyunik having claimed 18 wins from as many league games in 2025-26, in the process racking up a goal difference of plus 99.
But Harvey adds: “I’m fortunate that this is my second time. It’s not like a nervous feeling, like last time. I was, like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is the Champions League, such a big stage and one of the tournaments not a lot of players get to play in’.
“All those nerves are out the door. Now, we have our playing style and are coming off a successful season. The majority of our players have been retained so our core and culture is very much there.
“It’s another big game for us and we’re not shy of the big games any more.”
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
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