Reigning champions Arsenal booked their spot in the Women's Champions League semi-finals with a 3-2 aggregate victory over Chelsea, despite a 1-0 defeat at Stamford Bridge in Wednesday's quarter-final second leg. Knowing they had to chase the game, Chelsea, who had manager Sonia Bompastor sent off late on, started at a furious pace. Yet Arsenal soon knocked them out of their rhythm, and the home side didn't manage a single shot on target in the first half as the visitors took their time over every dead ball.
Stina Blackstenius headed home from a cross from her Swedish compatriot Smilla Holmberg in the 80th minute, but the goal was chalked off after a VAR review found that the striker had been just offside in the build-up. Sjoeke Nusken netted the opener, stealing in ahead of defender Lotte Wubben-Moy to sweep home a first-time shot in the 94th minute and set up a nerve-jangling finale.
With the game reaching its climax, Arsenal's Katie McCabe wasn't penalised for pulling Alyssa Thompson's hair during a counter-attack, prompting an angry outburst that saw Bompastor sent from the dugout after picking up two yellow cards for her protests.
Chelsea vs Arsenal latest updates
- GOAL! Nusken nets opener
Questions to be asked of Bompastor as Arsenal extend Chelsea's Champions League hoodoo
22:29 , Oli GentArthur Ferridge’s post-match thoughts from Stamford Bridge...
FT: Chelsea 1-0 Arsenal (2-3 agg.)
21:57 , Oli GentThat’s it, Chelsea are out, Arsenal are through.
What an ending!
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Chelsea 1-0 Arsenal (2-3 agg.)
21:56 , Oli Gent90+7 mins: Red card! Bompastor is shown two quick-fire yellows as she protests a hair pull.
Goal! Chelsea 1-0 Arsenal (2-3 agg.)
21:54 , Oli Gent90+4 mins: Nusken finally gets her goal, as she converts Kerr’s cross emphatically at the near post.
Chelsea 0-0 Arsenal (1-3 agg.)
21:51 , Oli Gent90+2 mins: Post! Maanum drives into the space that opens up for her and tees up Mead, who hits the post.
Chelsea 0-0 Arsenal (1-3 agg.)
21:50 , Oli Gent90 mins: Five added minutes.
Chelsea 0-0 Arsenal (1-3 agg.)
21:47 , Oli Gent88 mins: Great save! Van Domselaar produces a superb stop to deny Nusken’s bullet header, tipping it onto the post.
Chelsea 0-0 Arsenal (1-3 agg.)
21:45 , Oli Gent86 mins: Post! James cuts in and sees her strike well saved, before Buurman follows up but hits the woodwork!
Chelsea 0-0 Arsenal (1-3 agg.)
21:43 , Oli Gent84 mins: Walsh is off, Kaptein replaces her. Caldentey and Blackstenius are off for Codina and Maanum for Arsenal.
Chelsea 0-0 Arsenal (1-3 agg.)
21:40 , Oli Gent80 mins: No goal! Blackstenius flicks home the header as the striker peels into some space and feeds Mead to cross, before making the move into the middle to glance it into the corner. But she’s seen that ruled out for offside.
Chelsea 0-0 Arsenal (1-3 agg.)
21:35 , Oli Gent77 mins: Close! Another chance for Kerr as James drives and sends one in, which Kerr makes contact with, but the flag is up as she sees her effort saved.
Chelsea 0-0 Arsenal (1-3 agg.)
21:34 , Oli Gent74 mins: Close! Mead does well to clip one into the middle for Blackstenius, who can’t direct her header goalbound.
Chelsea 0-0 Arsenal (1-3 agg.)
21:28 , Oli Gent70 mins: Double change for the visitors as Smith and Fox come off for Mead and Holmberg.
Chelsea 0-0 Arsenal (1-3 agg.)
21:25 , Oli Gent67 mins: Yellow card for Hinds for time wasting.
Chelsea 0-0 Arsenal (1-3 agg.)
21:22 , Oli Gent64 mins: Yellow card for James for an accidental treading on McCabe.
Chelsea 0-0 Arsenal (1-3 agg.)
21:20 , Oli Gent61 mins: Cuthbert and Buchanan are off, with Niamh Charles and Sandy Baltimore on for the Blues.
Chelsea 0-0 Arsenal (1-3 agg.)
21:17 , Arthur Ferridge59mins: Chelsea really do need to throw the kitchen sink at this. Time is fast running out, and, while I doubt you need reminding, they require two goals.
Chelsea 0-0 Arsenal (1-3 agg.)
21:15 , Arthur Ferridge56mins: Sandy Baltimore is being readied to come on for Chelsea.
Chelsea 0-0 Arsenal (1-3 agg.)
21:14 , Arthur Ferridge54mins: Bronze sees her name in lights and has a crack on the volley from some 30 yards out. Her shot nestles in the upper tier of the Matthew Harding Stand.
Chelsea 0-0 Arsenal (1-3 agg.)
21:12 , Arthur Ferridge51mins: Another chance for Chelsea as James curls over from the edge of the area.
Chelsea 0-0 Arsenal (1-3 agg.)
21:12 , Arthur Ferridge49mins: WHAT A SAVE, DAPHNE VAN DOMSELAAR! Chelsea attack in direct fashion as Carpenter lofts a cracking long ball to her international team-mate Kerr and she gets a great shot away on the break. Van Domselaar, though, is at full stretch to deny her the goal, tipping over the bar.
Chelsea 0-0 Arsenal (1-3 agg.)
21:07 , Arthur Ferridge47mins: The subsequent set-piece is wasted as Fox’s shot is easily saved by Hampton.
Chelsea 0-0 Arsenal (1-3 agg.)
21:06 , Arthur Ferridge46mins: Unideal start to the half from Chelsea as Carpenter is booked for pulling down Hinds, high on the left flank.
2ND HALF: Chelsea 0-0 Arsenal (1-3 agg.)
21:04 , Arthur FerridgeBack underway!
Half-time subs?
21:01 , Arthur FerridgeThe youngsters Chloe Sarwie and Alexia Potter are both warming up on the pitch at the break, as are Wieke Kaptein and Sandy Baltimore. One wonders if there might be changes in the offing.
HALF-TIME: Chelsea 0-0 Arsenal (1-3 agg.)
20:49 , Arthur FerridgeThat does it for the first-half. Level on the night, Chelsea down two on aggregate. Just 45 minutes remain for them to rescue their campaign.
Chelsea 0-0 Arsenal (1-3 agg.)
20:48 , Arthur FerridgeJames catches Foord to cut short an Arsenal counter-attack but escapes a reprimand from the referee. “Same old Chelsea, always cheating,” sings the totally unbiased away end.
Chelsea 0-0 Arsenal (1-3 agg.)
20:45 , Arthur Ferridge45mins: Steph Catley has come off injured for Arsenal, and Taylor Hinds will replace her.
Chelsea 0-0 Arsenal (1-3 agg.)
20:44 , Arthur Ferridge44mins: James sends a lovely cross in search of Thompson, but again it comes to nothing. Chelsea have been so wasteful this half.
Chelsea 0-0 Arsenal (1-3 agg.)
20:43 , Arthur Ferridge44mins: A break in play here as Catley receives treatment in the Arsenal box. The visitors take the opportunity to talk over their tactics, but Erin Cuthbert is the only Blue to do the same.
Chelsea 0-0 Arsenal (1-3 agg.)
20:41 , Arthur Ferridge41mins: Arsenal could not be in a better place at this point of the match. They could, of course, kill it off with a goal, but as things stand they are perfectly equal to Chelsea and still have a two-goal cushion in the back pocket. They’re sitting pretty as half-time approaches.
Chelsea 0-0 Arsenal (1-3 agg.)
20:39 , Arthur Ferridge39mins: Crunching tackle between Broze and Foord has the former down in a heap, but she gets back to her feet without too much consternation and no treatment. Hard as nails.
Chelsea 0-0 Arsenal (1-3 agg.)
20:38 , Arthur Ferridge38mins: A bried break in play as Arsenal set up a goal-kick, and Caitlin Foord visits the bench for some tactical instruction from Renee Slegers. Might we see some tweaks in the setup here?
Chelsea 0-0 Arsenal (1-3 agg.)
20:36 , Arthur Ferridge36mins: Chloe Kelly is off warming up on her own now. Might we see her introduced at half-time?
Chelsea 0-0 Arsenal (1-3 agg.)
20:34 , Arthur Ferridge34mins: McCabe is the one to shoot, in fact, but her shot finds only the wall.
Chelsea 0-0 Arsenal (1-3 agg.)
20:33 , Arthur Ferridge33mins: A free-kick for Arsenal now, dead centre and 25 yards out. This has Mariona Caldentey written all over it.
Chelsea 0-0 Arsenal (1-3 agg.)
20:32 , Arthur Ferridge32mins: Another big, big chance goes begging for Chelsea. Kerr and Thompson link up wonderfully and the Australian puts her team-mate through on goal, but she fires over wastefully.
Chelsea 0-0 Arsenal (1-3 agg.)
20:30 , Arthur Ferridge29mins: Another wonderful chance for Chelsea as Carpenter teases a brilliant ball across the box, but none of the three Blue shirts in the middle can get near enough to poke it home.
Chelsea 0-0 Arsenal (1-3 agg.)
20:27 , Arthur Ferridge27mins: Nusken rather gets away with one as she clatters Mariona Caldentey in the box, but the referee only awards a goal kick rather than a penalty. Looked a clumsy tackle, that.
Chelsea 0-0 Arsenal (1-3 agg.)
20:25 , Arthur Ferridge25mins: Well, coming up to the half-hour mark and Chelsea are yet to trim their deficit. Plenty of time left, in fairness, but they really do need to get some points on the board sooner rather than later.
Chelsea 0-0 Arsenal (1-3 agg.)
20:24 , Arthur Ferridge24mins: James’ long-ball to Thompson is cut out in the box by Wubben-Moy. She’s a cracking player, but that just isn’t an aerial battle Thompson is ever going to win, is it?
Chelsea 0-0 Arsenal (1-3 agg.)
20:23 , Arthur Ferridge22mins: The corner then falls back to Smith, who runs onto it and puts her foot through it, a la traction engine, but Buchanan gets a knee down to block it before Hampton can be called into action.
Chelsea 0-0 Arsenal (1-3 agg.)
20:22 , Arthur Ferridge21mins: Buurman sticks a remarkable challenge on Smith as the Canadian looked to round the corner and jink into the Chelsea box. Corner for the Gunners.
Chelsea 0-0 Arsenal (1-3 agg.)
20:19 , Arthur Ferridge19mins: This developing battle between Olivia Smith and Alyssa Thompson has been fascinating thus far.
Chelsea 0-0 Arsenal (1-3 agg.)
20:17 , Arthur Ferridge16mins: Huge chance for Chelsea! Bronze’s eye-of-the-needle through-ball gets all the way through and finds Thompson, who then shoots wide. The Blues profligate finishing holding them back again, it seems.
Chelsea 0-0 Arsenal (1-3 agg.)
20:16 , Arthur Ferridge15mins: Arsenal are looking dfar more likely now, and Kim Little is the latest to get a shot off. Her long-range effort meets traffic, but the visitors recover and keep possession. Foord gets a shot away, but Hampton is equal to it once again.
Chelsea 0-0 Arsenal (1-3 agg.)
20:13 , Arthur Ferridge12mins: Fox puts in a superb last-ditch tackle to deny Carpenter a shooting chance. The Guners race down the other end and McCabe fires narrowly over from the edge of the area.
Chelsea 0-0 Arsenal (1-3 agg.)
20:10 , Arthur Ferridge10mins: Last week, Chelsea started well but failed to capitalise and were punished. They are in real danger of doing the same here. Arsenal are growing back into this tie now after the Blues dictated the early exchanges. Russo gets the Gunners’ first shot on target and Hampton saves.
Chelsea 0-0 Arsenal (1-3 agg.)
20:08 , Arthur Ferridge7mins: That should have been the opener! Buurman’s switch finds Carpenter, and she in turn squares to Nusken who shoots narrowly wide.
Chelsea 0-0 Arsenal (1-3 agg.)
20:06 , Arthur Ferridge6mins: Sam Kerr is wearing some fairly heavy strapping on her right thigh.
Chelsea 0-0 Arsenal (1-3 agg.)
20:04 , Arthur Ferridge4mins: The corner goes short to Walsh, whose cross is dealt with.
Chelsea 0-0 Arsenal (1-3 agg.)
20:04 , Arthur Ferridge3mins: Lauren James is seeing an awful lot of the ball in the early stages and is settling nicely into that ‘go anywhere and do what you want’ sort of role which she seems to thrive in. Her cross is headed behind by Nusken via a deflection and Chelsea have a corner.
Chelsea 0-0 Arsenal (1-3 agg.)
20:02 , Arthur Ferridge2mins: Daphne Van Domselaar has already had a talking-to for time-wasting! Remarkable. Must be some kind of record.
KICK-OFF! Chelsea 0-0 Arsenal (1-3 agg.)
20:00 , Arthur FerridgeWe’re off! Lauren James gets us underway.
View from the press box
19:59 , Arthur FerridgeThe away end’s boos easily drowned out the home fans’ cheers as the stadium announcer read off the starting line-ups there.
Here come the teams
19:57 , Arthur FerridgeThe anthem blares as the players take to the pitch. Kick-off is imminent!
Big calls
19:53 , Arthur FerridgeBompastor has made a huge call in defence here, dropping Sandy Baltimore and Naomi Girma to the bench.
She names a back four of Buurman, Bronze, Buchanan and Carpenter in their stead.
Wonder if that’ll pay off...
Team news reminder
19:50 , Arthur FerridgeTen minutes to kick-off. Here’s how the line-ups are looking.
Chelsea XI: Hampton; Carpenter, Buchanan, Buurman, Bronze; Cuthbert, Walsh, Nusken; James, Thompson, Kerr
Arsenal XI: Van Domselaar; Fox, Wubben-Moy, Catley, McCabe; Caldentey, Little; Russo, Smith, Foord; Blackstenius
View from the press box
19:49 , Arthur FerridgeThe DJ is doing their best to get the crowd whipped up here, but the vast majority of the noise in the ground is coming out of the away end.
Of the 15,000 or so fans here, only about 3,000 are wearing Arsenal red.
Chelsea's comeback pedigree
19:45 , Arthur FerridgeThe Blues have pulled off comebacks in this competition before.
Last season they faced Man City and trailed 2-0 after a disastrous first-leg at the Joie.
Buit a rip-roaring second-leg at the Bridge saw them overturn that deficit before half-time, progressing to the semi-finals where they were knocked out by Barcelona.
Millie Bright previews the tie
19:37 , Arthur Ferridge“This game is absolutely massive. It’s not just the Champions League, it’s not just a north London derby - it’s so much more than that. Everythings’ riding on it.
“We know what we need to do tonight. We did it last season against City - we proved to ourselves and everyone else what we could do. And we all believe that we can do it again.”
Last time out
19:30 , Arthur FerridgeThere were contrasting fortunes for these sides at the weekend.
Chelsea endured a stressful seven-goal thriller against Aston Villa, in which they gave up a two-goal lead and ultimately required a late winner from Sjoeke Nusken.
Arsenal, meanwhile, strolled through the north London derby, sinking Tottenham 5-2 by way of an Alessia Russo hat-trick.
Arsenal team news in full
19:21 , Arthur FerridgeArsenal XI: Van Domselaar; Fox, Wubben-Moy, Catley, McCabe; Caldentey, Little; Russo, Smith, Foord; Blackstenius
Subs: Borbe, Votikova, Codina, Hinds, Holmberg, Pelova, Maanum, Mead, Kelly
Bompastor previews the tie
19:12 , Arthur FerridgeSonia Bompastor writes in her programme notes...
“We know the challenge awaiting us at Stamford Bridge is going to be tough, but we have the quality and belief to turn this tie around. We are ready to put everything on the line to make this a special night.
“Obviously, it is not ideal to be starting two goals behind, against a really strong opponent, but our performance in the first leg should give us confidence that we can create chances against Arsenal. I don’t think the scoreline was a fair reflection of how we performed, but football can be like this.
“Now all we can control is how we perform tonight.”
No Williamson
19:03 , Oli GentSo she’s travelled, but not made the squad.
It’s Catley and Wubben-Moy at centre-back for the visitors, with Foord and Smith out wide.
Arsenal lineup
18:55 , Oli Gent... and here are the visitors.
🔴 𝗧𝗘𝗔𝗠𝙉𝙀𝙒𝙎 ⚪️
— Arsenal Women (@ArsenalWFC) April 1, 2026
🧱 Catley and Wubben-Moy pair up at the back
🪄 Mariona in the middle
⚡ Foord and Smith on the wing
Let’s show our mettle, Gunners 🔥
Chelsea lineup
18:53 , Oli GentChelsea XI: Hampton; Carpenter, Buchanan, Buurman, Bronze; Cuthbert, Walsh, Nusken; James, Thompson, Kerr
Subs: Peng, Spencer, Charles, Girma, Sarwie, Baltimore, Kaptein, Potter
Standard Sport prediction
18:45 , Oli GentYou would expect home advantage to come into play for the Blues and perhaps spur them on, but last week’s defeat will have stung.
How will they respond? Can Arsenal hold their nerve and see this one through under the lights?
Draw, 2-2.
Arsenal team news
18:37 , Oli GentThe big news for Arsenal is that Leah Williamson is touch and go for this game after her hamstring injury kept her out of the Gunners’ last three matches.
The other three absentees are longer term. Katie Reid is one, and Kyra Cooney-Cross is another, while Manuela Zinsberger’s season ended back in October after she ruptured her ACL.
Chelsea team news
18:25 , Oli GentThere are five absentees for the hosts this evening, which puts them in a slightly better place than some may have thought.
Bompastor revealed yesterday that Lauren James, Lucy Bronze and Sjoeke Nusken trained alone to manage their respective loads, and assured fans that the trio would be available to play this evening.
On the treatment table remain Aggie Beever-Jones, Niamh Charles, Mayra Ramirez, Nathalie Bjorn and Brooke Aspin, although Johanna Rytting Kaneryd is fit to play.
How to watch
18:20 , Oli GentTV channel: In the UK, the game will be televised live on BBC 2, with coverage starting at 7.30pm GMT ahead of an 8pm kick-off.
Live stream: Those with a valid TV license can also catch the contest live online via the iPlayer app and website.
Hello and welcome!
18:14 , Oli Gent... to Standard Sport’s LIVE coverage of Arsenal’s trip to Chelsea in the second leg of the Women’s Champions League.
This should be a cracker after a goal-heavy first encounter last week.
Stay tuned for all the updates, with kick off at 8pm BST.
