Out come our teams…
So where is the game? I imagine Vienna will defend deep and in numbers – with five strung out across the back, they’ll be hard to get around or through. So Chelsea will, I think, look to move the ball quickly and hit big switches, with Nusken and Walsh looking to thread Malard through, and Kaptein making third-person runs.
Bompastor talks about her team needing to be more ruthless, citing a lack thereof even before she became manager. She wants her team to be focused in the big moments, and that’s about it.
FULL-TIME SCORES
Leuven 0-0 Roma
Servette 0-8 Lyon
Here comes the pen … and Pandini hits the post! Justice is served!
In Leuven, Roma have just been awarded a penalty that’s an absolute nonsense, the ball headed back into the arm of a player a yard or two away and looking in the opposite direction. “Shitty” is the verdict of whichever Van Dongen twin said it.
In the studio, Tyra Mills is wearing a trackie that looks like the last word in comfort. Would wear.
Malard, the summer signing from Man United, scored off the bench at the weekend, and I’m looking forward to seeing how she does tonight. With Beevor-Jones soon to be fit, there’s competition for her place, so this is a chance for her to assert herself.
I’m not sure we’ll see Chelsea play 3-5-2 that often this season. It makes sense tonight because Vienna are playing it and, if teams match up, the better one tends to win; it also make sense given the players Sonia Bompastor has available.
Against Birmingham at the weekend, Chelsea set up in a 3-4-3 and there are three changes made to that XI: in net, Livia Peng replaces Hannah Hampton; at the back, Katie McCabe is on for Lucy Bronze; and up front, Melvine Malard comes in, with Wieke Kaptein dropping into midfield and Lexi Potter dropping to the bench.
I’m going to write these down, then we’ll take a closer look at what might come to pass. In the meantime, though, elsewhere it’s Leuven 0-0 Roma and Servette 0-7 Lyon, with just under 70 minutes gone.
Teams!
Chelsea (3-5-2): Peng; Buchanan, Buurman, McCabe; Carpenter, Kaptein, Walsh, Nusken, Thompson; Malard, Baltimore. Subs: Hampton, Rudz, Girma, Bjorn, Dragoni, Las, Bronze, Hamano, Brown, Potter, Sarwie.
Austria Vienna (3-5-2-): Pal; Wenninger, Schiechtl, Kirchberger; Schoffel, Potzl, Pfattner, Weiss, Hanshaw; Uka, Pfanner. Subs: Goetz, Gartner, Pucci, Cordes, Sisic, Jakobsen, Orkic, Schorn, Pichler.
Referee: Miriama Bockova (Slovakia)
Updated
Preamble
No English club has won more WSL titles than Chelsea’s eight; of those eight, four were doubles and three were trebles; only Chelsea have been champions three times in a row, never mind the streak of six they managed between 2019-20 and 2024-25; and yet.
And yet never have Chelsea been champions of Europe; incredibly, they’ve reached only one final, a wound deepened and doused in salted TCP by Arsenal achieving the feat twice.
Now, as they begin an 11th tilt at it, they are no longer even champions of England, finishing third last season, and also sit third in the current league table, having drawn their opening match against lowly Aston Villa. Since then, they’ve whacked Manchester United and beaten Birmingham but, without Lauren James, Erin Cuthbert, Manaka Matsukobo and Aggie Beever-Jones, are still some way short of full power.
Nevertheless they should have enough to get by Austria Vienna, making their debut in the competition proper having fallen at the final qualifying round last term. But it won’t have escaped the notice of either team that, last evening, Arsenal required an injury-time penalty to see off Køge, which is to say that though could be one-sided, it could also be very much not.
Kick-off: 8pm BST
