Cliftonville Ladies is the first opponent in Champions

Benfica will start its UEFA Women's Champions League 2023/24 against Northern Ireland's Cliftonville Ladies on September 6. The draw took place in Nyon on Friday, June 30.

The three-time national champions will face the Northern Irish champions in the semi-final of the 1st qualifying round, which will be played as a single-leg match at a venue yet to be determined.

Winning this match, Benfica will face the winner of BIIK Shymkent (Kazakhstan)-SFK Riga (Latvia) in another single match, on the route to the 2nd qualifying round for the group stage, which will then be played in two legs.

Reacting to the result of the draw, Luís Batista, team manager of the women's football team, approached the match against Cliftonville Ladies and outlined Benfica's goals for the 2023/24 edition of the competition.

"We will play against a team that is participating in the Champions League for the first time and that is still unknown. This pre-season is atypical because of the World Cup, and we still have the Super Cup semi-final before we face this opponent, who we frame in a physical and direct football profile. We want to win this round, and the goal will always be to reach the group stage. Reaching that stage, the goal is to do more than was done next season and, perhaps, fight for access to the next round", he revealed in statetements to BTV.