OH Leuven open the league phase of the UEFA Women’s Champions League for the second successive season at home to Italian champions Roma on Wednesday, with captain Julie Biesmans saying a young and much-changed squad is taking the competition ‘game by game’ and under ‘no pressure’.

Leuven are no longer European newcomers. They became the first Belgian side to reach the UWCL league phase last season, and this summer qualified again through three rounds. They beat TSC Bačka Topola 4-0, edged Fenerbahçe on penalties, and eliminated Polish champions Czarni Sosnowiec 6-2 on aggregate.

Roma are familiar opponents too, after the sides drew 1-1 in last season’s UWCL league phase.

They return, though, with a squad reshaped by their own success. Four established first team players left over the summer — centre-backs Linde Veefkind and Zenia Mertens, midfielder Sára Pusztai and forward Aurélie Reynders.

Biesmans treated the turnover as the price of doing well rather than a setback. She pointed to the academy now filling the gaps in a group averaging around 20 years old.

Biesmans returned several times to the idea that Leuven carry no expectation into the competition. The approach, she said, has not changed from a year ago.

A second qualification has not made the achievement feel routine.

That framing carries a quiet complication. A side that has qualified for the league phase twice in succession is no longer an unknown quantity. The summer departures are also a reminder of how quickly success can reshape a squad.