Chelsea held on to beat Real Madrid and extend their unbeaten home run in the Women’s Champions League group stage to 10 matches.
Goals from Sjoeke Nüsken, Guro Reiten and Mayra Ramírez continued the Blues’ perfect start to the season under their new manager, Sonia Bompastor, but the two goals conceded hinted at a defensive fragility.
“We scored the goals, but the players were not working as hard as I wanted them to work on the pitch,” said Bompastor. “We were just walking to get the ball, which is not good enough. If you want to possess the ball, you have to run a lot.”
There was a period of confusion before kick-off, with the Liquidator playing on loop and the teams stood in the tunnel with no sign of them coming out. When the players did emerge, kick-off delayed for six minutes, the cause was evident, with Zecira Musovic hurriedly pulling on gloves and Hannah Hampton, who was named in the starting XI, nowhere to be seen. “Hannah just felt unwell, just before she went out. She feels better now,” explained Bompastor. “But we have two really good goalkeepers and Z [Zecira Musovic] was ready. Z had a good performance; she was feeling good.”
In terms of who may have filled in, with no goalkeeper on the bench, the manager said: “I was thinking about that, we spoke about that. We were prepared in case. I’m not going to say who”.
While Chelsea are familiar with Real – it is the third time they have met in the group stage – it was the first time Bompastor and her staff had faced the Spanish side. The manager had warned of their growing threat before the game. “They are one of the most competitive teams in the Spanish league,” she said. “They love to possess the ball. It will be a tough game, and we are ready for that.”
The match would open up for the home team a lot quicker than she likely expected, the Blues taking the lead within three minutes. Johanna Rytting Kaneryd’s ball in from the right was headed goalward by Nüsken and took a deflection off Sheila García on its way in. It was a dream start to their Champions League campaign and the players in orange looked utterly deflated. Real regrouped though and created chances. Athenea del Castillo and Caroline Weir caused problems, but another error made the mountain they were climbing in the torrential rain that bit bigger.
Maëlle Lakrar’s high foot into Lucy Bronze led the referee to point to the spot – the incident coming seconds after María Méndez went in similarly high on Nüsken. Reiten coolly converted the penalty low into the corner to double Chelsea’s lead.
It was not plain sailing for the home team though, and their defence would be exposed shortly before the break. Nathalie Björn failed to clear a cross from the left and Sandy Baltimore blocked the resulting shot, but the ball fell kindly for Alba Redondo who fired past Musovic.
Bompastor’s side would restore their two-goal lead shortly after the break though, Lauren James’s perfectly weighted cross headed in by Ramírez from close range.
Alberto Toril, Real’s manager, said: “I feel like we’ve left a good image of ourselves here. We’re getting closer and closer, and this is the closest we’ve got in a meeting between the two sides.”
However, Real struggled to assert their authority and looked out of ideas, and Chelsea were happy to slow things down and hold on to the ball as their opponents laboured. A rare break in the 71st minute showed promise, with the substitute Linda Caicedo racing away on the break with Castillo to her left, but Ashley Lawrence was able to get back and block her shot.
Caicedo closed the gap for the visiting team with seven minutes to go, when Bronze’s backheel off the line went only as far as the 19-year-old Colombian forward who fired in.
Roma and Lyon impress while Celtic lose at home
In Group A Roma opened their campaign with a 1-0 win against Wolfsburg while Lyon eased past Galatasaray 3-0.
The most impressive performance came from Roma considering they finished bottom of their group last season and their coach, Alessandro Spugna, called it “a huge victory.”
All of Lyon’s goals were headers, with France striker Kadidiatou Diani getting two of them. Roma's goal came from Manuela Giugliano’s 14th-minute penalty.
In Group B’s other game, midfielder Kayleigh van Dooren struck in each half as Dutch side Twente won 2-0 at Celtic.
Elena Sadiku, the Celtic head coach, said: “I feel disappointed because I thought we started off well, but after they created a few opportunities, we went away from what we wanted to do and that's a lesson we'll learn.”
Despite the two goals conceded, it was comfortable for the home team on the pitch. The small crowd condensed into the stand opposite the dugout was one of the two big talking points, with the group stage still not attracting a big turnout under the lights at Stamford Bridge despite the weighty name of the opposition.
The other talking point? Chelsea’s defensive fragility which, despite the scorelines, has been on display in their 1-0 win over Aston Villa, their 7-0 defeat of Crystal Palace and here against Real. A better team could cause problems and up next they play Arsenal in the league, a team who have struggled to break down opponents that play in a low block but could really test the Chelsea back line in a more open game.
