How To Watch Women's European Club Soccer - 1/16/26

Welcome to a new column on women's football! The goal of this newsletter is simple: to tell you what the best matches are in women's football, how to watch them (in the US), and to talk about the important stories and give an overview of the women's football ecosystem. My name is Rowan Kaiser, I'm a longtime freelance writer and soccer player/viewer/analyzer/referee/enjoyer, and in the last few years I've worked on becoming an expert in the women's club game. That expertise is now going to be delivered to you, weekly!

For decades interest in women’s football has been primarily international but this has changed in the last 10-15 years, as both North American and European club football have rapidly expanded in quality, in interest, and most importantly for our purposes, television rights. Not only are there great games over several different leagues every week, but they’re also increasingly accessible for people to watch internationally. The mission statement of this newsletter is to serve as a guide to picking the best women’s club football matches, and also understanding why they’re the most interesting.

This first column, then, serves as a basic intro to what the top leagues are and a brief history and where they stand now. The core six leagues we’ll be covering here are England, Germany, France, Spain, United States, and Mexico, as well as the European and North American continental competitions. I’ll also be keeping an eye, if possible, on the middle class of leagues like Italy, Japan, Australia, Brazil, and Canada. With European leagues returning from their winter breaks this week, we’ll be starting there.

The Four Essential European Leagues

Each of the four European major leagues has several similarities: they’re all top-heavy, with 2-4 superclubs who dominate the trophy haul; they’re all on a winter schedule, starting matches at the end of summer and ending in late spring; and they all send three clubs to the Champions League, meaning that the fight for first place and third place are almost equally important. Three of the four (plus Italy, at least this week) are on the streaming site DAZN free with sign-up; England’s WSL is on ESPN+.

Most of these matches are not on at friendly times for Americans, but they are usually put up on tape delay on their streamer.

ENGLAND: The English league, the WSL (Women’s Super League), is the chief competitor for the best league in the world with America's NWSL. Like most of the non-US leagues, it’s extremely top-heavy, but it has more superclubs than most of the other leagues (Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City, and Manchester United) with an increasingly viable middle class of clubs this season (Spurs, Aston Villa, London City).

Chelsea have been by far the dominant club in terms of trophies across the last decade, only missing out on the league once in that time (Arsenal won in 2019.) Manchester City is currently leading the league, Arsenal is the defending European champion, and Manchester United is rapidly improving, so there’s compelling matches across the schedule. For fans of the US Women's National Team, all four of those clubs have notable Americans.

All WSL matches are available on ESPN+, although searching for them can lead to spoilers if you’re watching on tape delay like I often am, or you’ll run into the World Surfing League. I recommend this link for spoiler-free, only soccer matches.

SPAIN: The rise of Spain as a superpower is the biggest story in women’s football in the last decade, with the national team winning the 2023 World Cup and Barcelona dominating the Champions League, making the last five finals, winning three of them. That dominance extends to Spain’s Liga F, with Barca winning the last six titles, and superstars like Aitana Bonmati and Alexia Putellas winning the last several Ballons d’Or.

After Barca, Real Madrid has firmly ensconced itself as the second best club, with young star Linda Caicedo and Scottish Galactico Caroline Weir. They also beat Barca in a league match last season so the gap is closing. Atletico Madrid has been third, but Real Sociedad and Athletic Club are also in competition for a Champions League spot in a good year.

A couple Spanish league matches are available each week on DAZN, free with registration, sometimes in English but often just in Spanish.

FRANCE: Similar to Spain, the French league (the Premiere Ligue) is dominated by one massive club, Lyon, with a second would-be contender in second (Paris Saint-Germain). Lyon has been the dominant club in France and, until the rise of Barcelona, also Europe, winning five champions leagues in a row from ‘16-’20 and eight of the 12 contested from ‘11-’22. They are the most important club team in European women’s football history, and still one of the two biggest in the world alongside Barca. Lyon also employs three Americans.

Paris Saint-Germain, for a few years at the start of this decade, looked like they were Lyon’s potentially equal rival, sneaking one championship from the mega-club and employing many of the best players in the world, but have fallen behind recently — and have been docked points for paperwork failures this season. Paris FC has consistently been the third club in recent years, but currently Nantes, Fleury and Strasbourg are chasing, while Dijon took fourth last season.

DAZN also has two French league matches per week, in both English and French.

GERMANY: In the 2000s, as women’s football began to professionalize, the German league (the Frauen Bundesliga) was the heart of the women’s club game, winning most of those early Champions Leagues and both World Cups in that decade. The league and its clubs are no longer quite the best in the world, but they’re still very good, and the middle class of clubs of the Frauen Bundesliga is probably the best in Europe.

Germany’s dominant club at present is Bayern Munich, having won the last few titles, but they’re not far ahead of VfL Wolfsburg, the best team of the 2010s. Those two are generally at the top of the table, but the fight for third is competitive this year, with Werder Bremen, Hoffenheim, Frankfurt, Freiburg, Leverkusen, and Koln all the thick of it this year.

DAZN also has a few German league matches per week, all in English.

MATCH OF THE WEEK

In France, the Paris FC take on league leaders Lyon (Sun 7am EST, DAZN). After PSG was docked points, Paris FC, led by French international Clara Mateo, are now second in the table and this is one of the best chances for anyone to stop Lyon from a perfect season in Lindsey Heaps’ last year there. Paris FC has a sturdy defense, including American Deja Davis while Lyon’s all-star set of attackers like Kadi Diani, Melchie Dumornay, and Ada Hegerberg are the unstoppable force here.

I’ve been keeping an eye on DAZN’s coverage of Italy’s Serie A Femminile, which they claim to have but didn’t actually stream matches for, at least in the US — until this week! Second-place Juventus are playing fourth-place Inter (Sun 9:30am EST, DAZN). The Italian league is not one of the big leagues in women’s football historically, but their recent professionalization and success with the national team suggest it could be, very soon.

England’s WSL is taking the week off for FA Cup matches, which are supposedly on ESPN but I can’t confirm that. Arsenal-Aston Villa (Sun 9am EST) is the pick of the litter if you can find it. The German and Spanish leagues are in action but not with major matches. Finally, Mexico’s Clausura is in its third week, some of its matches are streamed in Spanish on Vix, including Cruz Azul versus Pachuca (Fri 4:25pm EST, Vix). I’ll spend more time on the Mexican league soon — it’s surprisingly high quality!

LAST WEEK’S BIG RESULTS:

Manchester United drew 0-0 in a tense tactical match with Arsenal. United’s American keeper Phallon Tullis-Joyce was the player of the match, both in terms of making several key saves and in pissing off Arsenal with multiple tactically useful “injury” time outs.

In Spain, Barcelona beat Atletico Madrid 5-0 while Real Madrid fell to Athletic Club 1-0, results which make Barca’s seventh consecutive championship significantly more likely, but does set up a battle for second between Real Madrid and Real Sociedad.

Nantes defeated Paris FC 2-1 in a free-flowing match with several good chances and last-ditch defending. The result moved Nantes up to second, a shocking placement for a side only in its second season in the top flight. 

IN OTHER NEWS

The transfer window is wide open, with two star American midfielders crossing the ocean in different directions. Sam Coffey is moving from Portland to Manchester City, a dramatic move for all involved. Coffey is trying to solidify her spot in the starting lineup for the USA before the World Cup next year, Manchester City adds a major piece who will expect to play most every match as they push for the title, while Portland gets a big transfer kitty but loses one world-class player as they’re getting another, Sophia Wilson, back next season.

Meanwhile, Lindsey Heaps is leaving Lyon at the end of her contract in the summer to move to the new Denver Summit club in NWSL. This is huge for Denver, who get one of the biggest and most recognizable stars in American soccer, and also terrific news for the NWSL which has otherwise seen multiple US internationals leave for Europe in the last year (Naomi Girma, Alyssa Thompson, Coffey).

GOAL OF THE WEEK: Claudia Pina, a player who rarely scores a boring goal, hits a beautiful strike off the underside of the bar for Barca’s second against Atletico Madrid.

Rowan Kaiser is a freelance writer. Support her on Patreon. Read her posts on Bluesky. Hire her as a consultant.