'We've been finishing friendlies with penalties!'

This season's Women's Champions League is set to be more dramatic than ever.

The remainder of the competition will be played as an eight-team, straight knockout tournament with one-off ties deciding each fixture, heaping even more pressure on the players involved.

So what does Kim Little make of the shift to one-legged ties?

"Champions League football has always been two legs, home and away," our captain said. "Within the season, when you're in that competition in Europe, it's quite a nice change to the domestic season. 

"But for this circumstance, one we're able to finish this season's Champions League which is what we all wanted, and then also with it being the start of the season and the first competitive games back, it's a great way to start it. I'm looking forward to it, there's a lot more pressure on one game and one situation.

"Penalties are actually something we've been working on. It's how we've been finishing our pre-season games. Regardless of the result, we've been doing penalty shoot-outs to prepare ourselves for the situation that could very much occur in the knock-out stages because of the format. It's something we've been preparing ourselves for in case that happened.

"We're just making the most of the time we're in this competition," Little added. "It doesn't come around too often in your career, to play these kinds of games and especially with how competitive the league is in England now, there are several teams that have the opportunity to push for those top two spots. Although we're disappointed for next year, we're just focusing on this moment and we're grateful to be a part of it this season."