Barcelona Femení 1-1 Chelsea FCW (2-1 agg.), Women’s Champions League semifinal: Post-match reaction

While Chelsea Women looked lively in the first few minutes of their match against Barcelona at Camp Nou, the hosts would soon take over most of the meaningful actions on the pitch. Possession was theirs and so was the pressure on our defensive third, with Caroline Graham Hansen trying to exploit the left flank of our defence.

Opportunities for the Blues to leave their own half were few and far between for a large part of the first half. By the end of it, Chelsea went further up and got to Barça’s area a couple of times. They made everything but the final pass right in both occasions.

In the second half, Barcelona were still dominating possession and shots on goal but Chelsea were far from harmless. However even though Chelsea were the ones always expecting a break to perhaps score their first goal of the tie, it were Barcelona who got a goal from a counterattack instead via Graham Hansen.

Barcelona were quite intense in the first half and keeping such levels of stamina for more than a half was an uphill battle. They had to take their foot off the gas and drop back their lines somewhat, giving Chelsea some room in midfield and attack to harm them.

We would eventually make use of all of it with a midfield tackle that turned into a beautiful Melanie Leupolz pass to Sam Kerr. Sandra Paños foul/parry fell to Guro Reiten, who made no mistake in her shot to the back of the net.

Lauren James and Pernille Harder were introduced by manager Emma Hayes to try and wreck havoc on a Barcelona team that should have been tired of keeping up a fast-paced game plan. But both were unfortunately not that effective in attacking the Culés, with Barça subs providing them the spark to keep our defence busy instead until the last whistle.

We certainly did our best given all the circumstances and the resources we had. That unfortunately was not enough at the end of the day, with Chelsea failing to keep their perfect semifinals record this season.

Carefree.

• Seemingly a 3-5-2 with Ève Périsset and Niamh Charles as wingbacks.
• Subs are Pernille Harder for Jessie Fleming, Guro Reiten for Lauren James, and Johanna Rytting Kaneryd for Ève Périsset.
• Any other team playing against Barcelona’s intensity in the first 40 minutes of the match would be down 3-0 by the end of it.
• Good defensive game on our part overall, as we forced Barça to almost always go long in their attempts at goal.
• Caroline Graham Hansen was a nightmare to play against in the first match, and she was once again in the second leg.
• Even when far from their best, mostly due to several injuries accumulated during the season, this Chelsea team were very close to overcoming a club that did not know what a loss or even a draw was since December last year.
• Next up: Everton at home in the Women’s Super League.
• KTBFFH!