United Preview | Historic night for Marc Skinner's side

United v Valerenga Preview

We host Norwegian side Valerenga, in the first of six league-phase games in this season’s Champions League.

Author | Olivia T

Stadium | Leigh Sports Village

The Reds have happy associations with Scandinavia already this season, beating PSV Eindhoven and Hammarby in Sweden and eliminating Brann 3-1 on aggregate to qualify to this stage, for the first time ever.

Team news

Fourteen Reds featured in Friday night’s meeting with Chelsea, as we ended the Blues’ 100 per cent start to the WSL season.

Anna Sandberg made a goalscoring return to the line-up, following illness, while Simi Awujo and Hannah Blundell were included on the bench for the first time in 2025/26.

Leah Galton has been taking part in training as she builds towards a comeback from injury, but Millie Turner is out until Christmas, meaning she will miss our six scheduled European games.

Pre-match press conference

Marc Skinner and Maya Le Tissier discussed the match in the pre-match press conference. They discussed the match and chances of glory come the end of the season.

Building on a successful start to the season

Still yet to lose a game in the WSL and into the league phase of the Champions League, we look much improved since the end of last season.

The recent display against Chelsea will strengthen the belief in this United side that they can compete with the best and get results.

A closer look at the opposition

The Oslo-based outfit have lifted the Toppserien title in each of the last two seasons and are currently engaged in a titanic tussle with Brann, as they seek to clinch a third success in a row.

Four points separate the sides and, with five games to play, second-placed Valerenga will have one eye on Sunday’s top-of-the-table fixture. The capital club will, no doubt, fancy their chances of closing the gap too, after they ended Brann’s long unbeaten domestic run in September’s Norwegian Cup semi-finals.

Valerenga overcame HJK Helsinki, Slavia Prague and Ferencvaros to reach this stage, scoring 10 goals and conceding just one.