Women's football weekly review: Late Champions League drama while Spurs score eight in Brighton Halloween horror show and Spain lift trophy

Women's football has provided plenty of drama over the last week, with games in the domestic leagues and Champions League throwing up some thrilling, and some surprising, results, and Spain claiming international age-group honours.

It has been a tale of game-changing reds, last minute goals, and unexpected high-scoring fixtures.

We're looking back at the action across Europe's top five leagues from the final installment of weekend football for October 2022, the U17 World Cup final, as well as delving into midweek action from the UCL.

Top players of the week

Here are just a handful of the standout performances from the action across the leagues...

Georgia Stanway provided the heroics for her teammates and for the Bayern Munich faithful in midweek when she helped complete a remarkable UEFA Women's Champions League (UCL) comeback against Benfica. The English midfielder levelled the tie with seven minutes to go, just moments before Maria Grohs in the Bayern goal saved a penalty. With eight minutes added time at the end, Stanway stepped up to bury a low strike into the bottom corner with 30 seconds left on the clock.

Over in the English Women's Super League (WSL), Jordan Nobbs had herself quite the week for Arsenal. On Thursday evening she scored their opening goal against Zurich in the Champions League and went onto drop a Player of the Match performance. Come Sunday, she was called upon from the bench to help the Gunners bounce back from going behind to West Ham. Nobbs scored within moments of entering the pitch,  with what was her second touch of the game, to equalise. Arsenal went on to win 3-1 and maintain their winning streak in the league.

Staying in England, Khadija Shaw continued her magnificent form for Manchester City after scoring in their 2-1 win over Liverpool. The Jamaican international now has six goals from just five games, and has comfortably filled the void in the City team that was left by the now-retired Ellen White. She also helped set up Hayley Raso's winning goal against the Merseyside club, a testament to a creative spark that has allowed her to register seven goal involvements in the league so far.

Top games of the week

In a tale of dramatic comebacks and goal routs, here are this week's top games...

Benfica 2-3 Bayern Munich (UCL)

On Thursday evening, Bayern Munich embodied all of the reasons why fans love the European Champions League so much. The never give up attitude of teams, and the late drama, are why the competition has captured so many hearts across both the men's and women's games - and this matchup had it in abundance.

The German side went 2-0 down on the hour mark, with Nycole Raysla and Cloe Lacasse scoring for Benfica. Maximiliane Rall pulled one back seven minutes later to give the away side hope - and then up stepped their summer recruit: Georgia Stanway. A goal with seven to go, and another deep into stoppage time, completed Bayern's brilliant comeback to keep the German side in touch with Barcelona at the top of their group.

St Pölten 3-4 AS Roma (UCL)

Sticking with the theme of remarkable comebacks, AS Roma pulled off an impressively quick one with just 15 minutes to spare against St Pölten during the week.

The Austrian club led the way with goals either side of half-time from Jasmin Eder and Rita Schumacher, but Elena Linari's instinctive strike spurred the Italian giants awake. Two goals in three moments saw Roma turned the game on its head and lead 3-2 with ten minutes left on the clock. Paloma Lazaro's late strike appeared to seal the victory, but Maria Mikolajova scoring moments later for the hosts set up a nail-biting finish - but the Italians held on to win 4-3.

Brighton 0-8 Tottenham Hotspur (WSL)

Look away, Brighton fans! Things went wrong for the Seagulls in the opening few minutes of the game when they conceded to Molly Bartrip's spectacular effort from outside the area. The home side held on until the 20th minute, when Nikola Karczewska's capitalised on a mishap at the back to double Spurs' lead and opened the floodgates.

Second half braces from Ashleigh Neville, Drew Spence, and Jessica Naz completed an afternoon to remember for the visiting side. For Hope Powell and her team, however, it was a nightmare result on the eve of Halloween that they will want to put behind them as soon as possible.

Werder Bremen 2-3 Wolfsburg

If you thought the agonisingly close games were just a feature of the Champions League, you thought wrong. The Frauen-Bundesliga in Germany served up another classic from the week just gone as Wolfsburg had an all-but-routine game against a struggling Werder Bremen side.

Rebecka Blomqvist and Alexandra Popp were on the scoresheet in the first half, with Bremen pulling one back through Rieke Dieckmann on the half hour mark. But when Blomqvist scored her second of the game to put Wolfsburg 3-1 up just after half-time, it seemed like business as usual for the defending champions. Christin Meyer's 77th-minute strike spurred the home side on in search of their first win of the new season. But, ultimately, the strength of a visiting side that has now won six in six proved too strong for Bremen, who sit 11th in the table.

Spain 1-0 Colombia

Spain edged out Colombia 1-0 in the final of the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup 2022 at the DY Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai on Sunday to successfully defend their world championship title in the age-group tournament.

An Ana Guzman own goal in the 82nd minute decided the final and eventual champions.

The win also means that Spain are now tied with North Korea with two titles each and share the honour of being the most successful football team in the history of the U-17 women’s World Cup.

Top results of the week

Juventus 1-1 Lyon (UCL)

A clash of respective giants in the Champions League, but the real winners were fellow group member Arsenal as the points were shared this time round.

After losing their opening game to the Gunners, Lyon - reigning champions of the UCL - now sit in third place in the group with work to do. Melvine Malard's unfortunate own goal in the second half cancelled out Lindsey Horan's opener. Despite 24 efforts on goal for the French giants, only four of those would be on target as they continue to adapt to life without key players such as Ada Hegerberg and Catarina Macario.

Lyon's next game will be against Zurich when the UCL returns, while Juventus face Arsenal giving the group table a chance to potentially switch things up.

Levante Las Planas 1-2 Sporting Huelva

At the bottom of Spain's Primera Division, Sporting Huelva picked up a huge three points to see them climb the table.

Up against Levante Las Planas away from home, it was the hosts who dominated across the board from chances created to possession, but Huelva had the clinical edge. Goals from Elsa Edgren and Anna Hagman either side of the break proved to be the difference for a side in need of a win.

Mari Vilas scored late on to pull it back to 2-1, but it was nothing more than a consolation goal.

Pomigliano 2-1 AC Milan

AC Milan have had a turbulent start to their season, with four wins and four losses in their opening eight games. On the contrary, Pomigliano came into this game with just the one win in eight, losing five and drawing one.

In need of another win to help climb the table, falling behind to an unfortunate own goal was not part of the script. Verena Dias levelled the score after half an hour, before Christy Grimshaw was given a red card just minutes before half-time. Now, up against 10 players for the second 45, the hosts sensed their opportunity to pick up three vital points - and it would be in the most dramatic of fashions as second half substitute Debora Novellino scored in the 89th minute to snatch the points.

Pomigliano have now climbed to 7th in the table, with a bit of daylight between themselves and the three teams below them.

Top games during the week ahead: Schedule for start of November

More big games await clubs across Europe, with domestic leagues taking centre stage as we enter a new month.

Here are some key ties to watch as we look forward...

Friday 4 November

• Paris FC v Bordeaux (20:00 CET) - Division 1 Feminine

Saturday 5 November

• Freiburg v Bayern (13:00 CET) - Frauen-Bundesliga
• PSG v Montpellier (13:30 CET) - Division 1 Feminine

Sunday 6 November

• Manchester United v Chelsea (19:45 CET) - WSL
• Real Madrid v Barcelona (18:00 CET) - Primera Division
• Meppen v Werder Bremen (16:00 CET) - Frauen-Bundesliga