Emma Hayes will give Millie Bright as much time as possible to prove her fitness for Chelsea’s Champions League quarter-final second leg against Lyon on Thursday night.
Chelsea earned a 1-0 victory in the first leg in south-east France thanks to a Guro Reiten goal to give the Blues the advantage over the eight-time Women’s Champions League winners and current holders.
Bright limped off with a knee injury in Lyon, forcing her to miss the dispiriting 2-0 defeat at Women’s Super League title rivals Manchester City on Sunday, only their second defeat in all competitions this season. Her absence was felt at City where the team looked tired and flat without Bright at the heart of defence.
The centre-back did not train on Wednesday but the manager is hopeful she could be ready. Asked if Thursday could come too soon for Bright, Hayes said: “We’ve got time until tomorrow, we are just maximising as much time as we can.”
The game will be played in front of a record crowd for a Women’s Champions League fixture at Stamford Bridge with more than 17,000 tickets sold. “We know what to expect, they’re the champions of Europe over a long period of time for a very good reason,” Hayes said. “We want these situations, we want to be in this game tomorrow and we want to be in a position where we can impose ourselves in our stadium the way that we want to. We have a lot of experience too and I think it’s important for the team as a whole to demonstrate that, particularly in the right moments.”
A one-goal deficit will not be of too much concern to Lyon, who have won six of the past seven Champions League titles. They defeated Guingamp 6-0 at the weekend to go top of Ligue 1 and have conceded once in their past six league matches, scoring 21 in the process. They could also be boosted by the return of Norwegian striker Ada Hegerberg to the side after injury.
“It’s important to have the game at Stamford Bridge,” the Chelsea captain, Magda Eriksson, said. “It’s our fortress. We have had good results there before. That will be in the back of our minds. We know we still have a long way to go in this tie. We have to be switched on from the start, stay together as a team and be resilient.”
