Chelsea’s Champions League dream remains alive. A single-goal defeat by Barcelona in their semi-final first leg provided enough positives and a narrow enough margin for the second leg at the Camp Nou to look slightly less daunting. “You have to be in the tie, that was my big message,” said Emma Hayes. “We’re in the tie.”
More than 700 days since the 2021 final, in which Chelsea succumbed to a humiliating 4-0 defeat to Barça, there was a chance for a little redemption at Stamford Bridge. Of the starting XI that played in that bruising final in Gothenburg, six were on the teamsheet to start.
Two years ago, it took 33 seconds for Barcelona to take the lead and once again there was an early sucker punch. This time the Blues held out for three minutes and 11 seconds, with Caroline Graham Hansen cutting inside from the right, shifting past Melanie Leupolz and lashing powerfully beyond a diving Ann-Katrin Berger before Erin Cuthbert could close her down.
“We had a disappointing start,” said Hayes. “But we grew into the first half, scored a goal that was offside, and we needed to be perfect to beat these guys … I’m grateful to be in a position where the tie wasn’t over after 36 minutes.”
It had been a wicked deflection off Leupolz that looped over Berger and gave Barcelona the lead in that final before Chelsea crumbled, conceding three more by the 36th minute. This time they held it together and a superb defensive performance was the highlight despite the absence of the injured Millie Bright and Kadeisha Buchanan.
Chelsea were arguably a weaker side this time round without Pernille Harder, Fran Kirby and the departed Ji So-yun in the starting XI. The fluid football that has been the team’s hallmark in recent years has been less present this season, with players coming in and out of the team to disrupt the rhythm, though Hayes said after last Sunday’s 1-0 FA Cup semi-final defeat of Aston Villa that the players have enjoyed the fact “everyone’s got to fight to dig the result out”.
Barcelona may have taken an early lead, but the ball hitting the back of the net had little impact on Chelsea’s belief they could cause an upset. While they were ready to relinquish possession, Hayes’ side also threatened. Their best chances came from Sam Kerr linking up with Guro Reiten. The first saw the Australian head towards her teammate, who laid it back to Kerr before the forward’s strike powered off the upper arm of a defender and trickled towards the far post for Sandra Paños to gather. Again, Kerr flicked on for Reiten around the half-hour mark and the Norwegian beat Paños but Lucy Bronze, the Barça right-back, got her body in the way.
It was end-to-end, with Jonatan Giráldez’s side happy to shift down a gear and Chelsea looking to catch them on the break. “We played a really good match defensively,” said Giráldez. “We played like a unified block. We were super-concentrated all match and we played well positionally.”
There was concern for Sarina Wiegman, the watching England manager, past the hour mark when Bronze limped off with a knee injury, unable to put weight on her leg, a day after Leah Williamson’s knee injury was confirmed as a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament. However, Giráldez had good news to share: “Initially Lucy was a bit worried about her injury, she felt pain in her knee, but now she’s feeling much better about it.”
With Chelsea desperate to take a goal to the Camp Nou, Harder was thrown into the mix for the first time this year. Meanwhile, Asisat Oshoala, who has 24 goals this season, was among the Barcelona substitutes to enter the fray after missing the game against Atlético Madrid at the weekend. The hosts could not find the leveller against a possession-heavy Barcelona, but a gutsy performance and a narrow margin will leave the underdogs salivating at the reverse fixture next Thursday.
