14 August 2001 - UEFA Opens The Door For The Women

On 14 August 2001, Moldova's FC Codru Chişinău hosted the first-ever UEFA Women's Cup match, the opening leg of a qualifying tie against Solvenia's NK Ilirija. Codru won 9-0.

UEFA established the Women's Cup in 2001 in response to the growing interest in women's football across Europe. It remains the only major European women's club competition and in 2010 was rebranded as the UEFA Women's Champions League, to better parallel the equivalent men's tournament. Teams qualify for the Women's Champions League by winning their domestic league (or, for countries without a league, by winning their domestic cup competition).

Codru Chişinău and Ilirija were the only two teams that needed to qualify for the 2001-02 tournament, with the winner on aggregate advancing directly to the group stage. Codru left little doubt as to the winner of the tie, quickly taking a lead with a goal from Gabriela Enache in the 2nd minute. Enache finished as the day's top scorer with three more goals (23', 36' (pen), 72'). Codru's other goals were scored by Svetlana Frisko (14', 90'), Angela Toma (26'), Marianna Berinczan (66'), and Jozefina Deliu (77').

The 9-0 lead effectively ended the tie, but Codru also won the second leg 9-0, with six goals from Enache. They won their first group stage match, against Armenia's College Sports Club, by an identical score, but their dominance ended there, as they were eliminated in the group stage with losses to Levante and eventual champions Frankfurt.