Tbilisi to host UEFA Women’s Champions League qualifiers

Georgia's capital Tbilisi will host six matches of the UEFA Women's Champions League qualifying stage, with the fixtures set to kick-off over three matchdays starting next week.

The Mikheil Meskhi 2 stadium and David Petriashvili Arena in the city will be the venues for games played between Gintra Universitetas of Lithuania, Turkey's Konak Belediyespor, Slovakia's Partizan Bardejov and local favourites Martve.

The four teams are part of the qualifying Group 1 for Europe's premier women's club tournament, and among 40 teams vying to reach the final stage of the competition's 2017-2018 season.

The draw for the qualifying round of the 2017 season of the tournament was held earlier this year.

For each group of the qualifying round, UEFA has designated a host team, with matches of the group played in the country of the club.

Martve, the Georgian champions and the country's first Women's Champions League entrants since the 2010-2011 season, have been selected as hosts of Group 1.

Players of the club, based in Georgia's western city Kutaisi, are set to return to Tbilisi on August 19 following their pre-qualifiers training in Azerbaijan. They will face Konak Belediyespor in the opening match on August 22.

Held over August 22-28, the qualifying round will reveal clubs from all groups claiming 11 available spots at the finals of the tournament, which will progress over the rest of the football season and end in the final match played in Ukraine's capital Kiev.

UEFA said a record 61 teams from 49 European football associations had signed for the current Women's Champions League season.

France's Lyon are the current champions of the continental competition, which was first launched in 2000.