Sonia Bompastor channelled compatriot Édith Piaf, saying she wanted her players “to have no regrets” come the final whistle of their Champions League quarter-final second leg against Manchester City, and three first-half goals were the result of a relentless and battling performance to overturn the two-goal first leg deficit.
We have been waiting for Chelsea to move into fifth gear, for a display across 90 minutes reflective of their dominance in all competitions and the talent in the squad, and at Stamford Bridge Bompastor’s side delivered the gear change when it mattered most, goals from Sandy Baltimore, Nathalie Björn and Mayra Ramírez seeing off City in style.
The Blues set up a mouthwatering semi-final tie with Champions League holders Barcelona as a result, who coldly dispatched Wolfsburg 10-2 on aggregate.
The Chelsea manager made five changes to the team that scored a stoppage-time winner at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday and it was this play that many predicted could be the difference, the London side able to rotate and maintain an intensity that a depleted and limited City squad couldn’t match.
Much has been made of City’s injury crisis, with Khadija Shaw, Aoba Fujino, Rebecca Knaak, Lauren Hemp, Alex Greenwood, Laura Blindkilde Brown and Ayaka Yamashita all out and only five players named on the bench for the trip to Stamford Bridge.
However, the home team also had absentees; Naomi Girma, Sam Kerr, Guro Reiten, Maelys Mpomé, Kadeisha Buchanan and Sophie Ingle all injured and Zecira Musovic pregnant.
Such is the quality and number of players available to Chelsea it is easy to forget who isn’t there and overlook the work done to ensure they remain competitive. City’s injuries are a valid excuse for failure on the pitch but they are not an excuse for a club that should be investing more in its playing group.
There was a frenetic energy to Chelsea from the off as a result of the fresh legs, a fire in the bellies and belief emanating from the players. Bompastor stood in a power stance in her technical area, living every pass and every run, one step away from racing onto the pitch to do the job herself.
Their pressure was relentless and although the crowd was half the size of that which graced the Emirates Stadium the night before, they absorbed the fight of the players in blue and fed back with the same intensity.
Goals were coming and they were only going one way, the contrast between the game in London and the phenomenal and battling City performance eight days prior was stark. It took 14 minutes for Chelsea to capitalise on their dominance, a relentless Lucy Bronze driving into the box from the right and launching a shot off the post that Baltimore was there to follow up on, firing into the side netting from the left.
City regrouped, somewhat, in the immediate aftermath of the goal, Mary Fowler and Kerolin both forcing straightforward saves from Hannah Hampton, and then the Chelsea show resumed. They were level on 37 minutes and ahead just before the break for the first time in the tie.
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First, Baltimore’s corner was met by Natalie Björn, who sent a looping head past Khiara Keating, the Chelsea duo returned to the starting XI for this fixture, then Lauren James escaped on the right before pulling the ball back for Ramírez to turn in. The visiting team looked shellshocked, unable to cope with or adapt to the terrier-like pressure of their opponents.
It would be unfair to say Chelsea’s energy dipped in the second half, but there was a slightly more patient and pragmatic approach once they had the lead. They were still the more potent side, Johanna Rytting Kaneryd and Erin Cuthbert both forcing saves from Keating minutes apart just after the hour mark.
Cuthbert would go closest in the second half, another effort coming back off the bar earning a collected gasp of disappointment from the crowd that had chanted “we want four” at half-time.
City tried to muster some sort of challenge, the one-goal margin providing some hope for Nick Cushing’s team, but it left them exposed at the back and Chelsea were a constant threat on the break.
Bompastor’s side have emerged from the four back-to-back games against City with three wins and one defeat, that one defeat, in the first leg, the game they could afford to lose. They march on with a first trophy under their belts, the League Cup, and, arguably, their best form ahead of them.
