Paris Saint-Germain Féminine 0-1 Chelsea FCW, Women’s Champions League: Post-match reaction

Facing last season’s Women’s Champions League semi-finalists Paris Saint-Germain away in your first match of the competition is not an enticing prospect for any team. That was the challenge Chelsea had to face today, in a group that also include Spanish juggernauts Real Madrid as one of the competitors for two playoff spots.

Expectations of Chelsea maybe having to suffer a bit to get a positive result, were soon shown otherwise by the women in Blue. Even though the team did not dominate possession against the hosts, we created far more chances. At the same time Kadeisha Buchanan, who has not had the best start to her career at Kingsmeadow, was instrumental in keeping PSG at bay whenever they approached our defensive third.

It felt as if Chelsea’s goal was a matter of time, and so it was. Erin Cuthbert took the corner kick and the ball fell back to her. She crossed it back to the box and found Millie Bright at the far post, who just had to do a simple “pivot” to find the back of the net.

The Blues almost doubled their lead in the first half with Sam Kerr with what would have been an opportunistic goal by beating PSG shot-stopper Sarah Bouhaddi with a chip. However the goalkeeper managed to recover in time to avoid the worse for her team.

In the second half, Chelsea needed only to manage the result and maintain PSG out of our vicinity. It was harder than in the first half, but we succeeded.

Carefree!

• Strong starting eleven on Chelsea’s side with Niamh Charles, Pernille Harder and Guro Reiten as attacking midfielders, and Sam Kerr leading the charge as our no.9.
• Subs are Jessie Fleming for Pernille Harder, and Johanna Rytting Kaneryd for Guro Reiten.
• This first half went much better than expected. Chelsea did not dominate PSG completely, but it did get the fair share of chances while limiting the opposition to a single shot against Berger.
• Buchanan has gotten a lot of flak for mistakes made since getting to Chelsea but today she was the key for us in keeping the lead in the first half.
• Kaneryd is almost always showing great promise whenever she gets some minutes. Cannot wait for her full debut!
• Bright, the best goalscoring defender one could dream off!
• Next up: Brighton away in the Women’s Super League.
• KTBFFH!